Pulmocide Receives £17 Million Series A Funding
Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, “Innovations”), the leading technology commercialisation and investment group, has completed an investment in Pulmocide Ltd, a company focused on the discovery and development of a new generation of inhaled medicines for the treatment of serious viral and fungal infections of the respiratory tract. Innovations is investing £4.25m as part of a consortium of leading venture investors which includes SV Life Sciences, Fidelity Biosciences and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC).
The Pulmocide management team, led by Garth Rapeport (CEO) and Pete Strong (CSO), were previously co-founders of Respivert Ltd which was acquired by Janssen Biotech Inc in 2010. In addition, they facilitated the spin-out of Topivert Ltd from Respivert. Topivert is developing topical anti-inflammatories for the treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and eye.
Pulmocide will be based at the Imperial BioIncubator in London.
Maina Bhaman, Director, Healthcare Ventures at Innovations, said:“We are delighted to be able once again to invest in the strong entrepreneurial management team of Garth Rapeport and Pete Strong in this important venture. There is a high level of unmet medical need for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and invasive aspergillosis. We are confident in the team’s ability to develop innovative approaches to these important healthcare challenges.”
Garth Rapeport, CEO of Pulmocide, said:“The Pulmocide team has an extensive track record in the discovery of potent long acting medicines for delivery to the lung via the inhaled route of administration. We are gratified to have the support of a leading investor consortium in our efforts to discover highly effective new treatments for life threatening respiratory tract infections”
Issued for and on behalf of Imperial Innovations by College Hill.
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Enquiries: Imperial Innovations Group Plc
Russ Cummings, Chief Executive Officer
Terry Nicklin, Director of Communications
College Hill
Adrian Duffield/Tim Watson/Rozi Morris
J.P. Morgan Cazenove
Michael Wentworth Stanley/Alec Pratt
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Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk
Since founding in 1986, Innovations has invested in the most promising technologies from our brightest scientists. Today it is connected with four of the world’s top research universities: Imperial College London, Cambridge and Oxford Universities and University College London. These centres of scientific excellence between them have a research income of over £1.3 billion per annum. Innovations supports scientist-entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas. It adds value by leading the formation of new spin-out companies, providing investment, encouraging co-investment as well as through its operational expertise. It also runs an Incubator in London that is the initial home for many of its technology spin-outs.
Originally formed as the Technology Transfer office for Imperial College – a role it still carries out – Innovations is today a significant technology investor and has built a portfolio of around 90 companies. Almost £150m has been invested by Innovations and £0.5bn has been raised in total by the portfolio companies. In 2013, a £30 million loan facility was agreed with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for investment in biotech and therapeutics businesses.
Innovation invests in the most promising opportunities from whichever technology sector they arise and has built particular expertise in the key sectors of: Therapeutics, Medtech and devices, Engineering and materials and ICT.
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