17 February 2010: The biotechnology company Domainex has secured further financing to develop its Combinatorial Domain Hunting (CDH) technology, and to advance its internal pipeline of oncology targets. The patented CDH technology puts Domainex in a unique position to clone and express challenging protein drug targets. This funding will be used to take forward the company’s small-molecule drug research portfolio consisting of the kinase IKKe, and a number of methyltransferase enzymes.
The two-stage funding round will bring in a significant investment from Longbow, The Capital Fund, and Takeda Research Investment, Inc. (TRI). This funding should take the company through to a point where Domainex can close a number of corporate collaborations and deals on its novel targets for cancer.
Eddy Littler, CEO of Domainex said: “This investment in Domainex is the next step in our long-term relationship with both Longbow and The Capital Fund, and is a clear indication of their satisfaction with, and commitment to, Domainex. We are also very happy to welcome new investment from Bury Fitzwilliam-Lay & Partners LLP. The involvement of TRI represents an important recognition of the value of Domainex’s unique CDH technology, and its novel oncology pipeline. We are eagerly looking forward to the next few months during which we anticipate advancing our targets and pipeline to an exciting position. We will of course continue to develop our CDH technology, and will collaborate with Takeda on a number of innovative drug discovery targets”.
Graeme Martin, President & CEO of TRI said “CDH is a truly innovative technology and highly complimentary to Takeda’s existing structural biology initiatives. Our investment in Domainex is intended to help the company further develop this platform, and typifies TRI’s commitment to supporting therapeutic innovation in creative, early stage companies”.
About Domainex
Domainex uses unique and proprietary technologies to resolve common bottlenecks facing the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the post-genomic era. Major discovery ‘gaps’ exist between the vast amount of genomic information that is now available, the accessibility of the corresponding proteins for use in target validation and drug discovery, and the identification of robust hits in a cost effective manner. Founded in 2002, Domainex is a privately owned company with laboratories in Cambridge, England, and offices in the London Bioscience Innovation Centre. Domainex has developed a number of platform technologies specifically aimed at enabling biotech or university groups who have exciting new drug targets. Its Combinatorial Domain Hunting (CDH) technology will deliver protein constructs that are soluble, stable, and produced in high-yield - thereby opening up the path to high throughput screening, structural biology, or antibody production. Domainex has also developed LeadBuilder - a virtual screening approach for targets which is specifically aimed at identifying hit molecules that are ideally suited for further development. The experienced medicinal chemistry team has a proven track record in supporting biotech or university groups by providing expertise to take hit compounds through lead optimisation and on to candidate selection. Several compounds arising from these collaborations are currently in clinical evaluation.
Domainex works with clients on a fee-for-service basis. In 2008, the company secured investment to establish its own internal drug discovery pipeline based upon a number of targets in oncology. These targets are being progressed using Domainex’s platform technologies.
For more information: www.domainex.co.uk
About Takeda Research Investments
Takeda Research Investment, Inc. (TRI) is the corporate venture arm of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TPC) a world-class pharmaceutical company and the largest in Japan. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda America Holdings, Inc., TRI started operations in November 2001. Our aim is to encourage and support therapeutic innovation in biopharmaceutical companies and academic centres of excellence, through early stage capital investment and provision of access to the resources of a multinational pharmaceutical company.
About Longbow Capital
Longbow is a specialist investor in the unquoted well being, healthcare and life sciences sector, established in 2004 and owned by its investment partners and outside members. It currently manages three EIS Funds (a fourth following closure of the 2010 Longbow Approved EIS Fund) and the Longbow SIPP Venture Fund. Longbow has led on investments of over £35m into 12 unquoted life science companies. The Executive Partners have combined experience of investing in over 30 unquoted technology companies with several successful exits achieved. www.longbow.co.uk.
About The Capital Fund
The Capital Fund is a £50 million venture capital fund which backs fast-growing, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Greater London. The Fund is the largest of the nine Regional Venture Capital Funds and has a mixture of public and private investors.
The Fund has reached the end of its investment period and is now focusing on its portfolio companies, supporting them in their growth and development. The primary objective of the Capital Fund is to maximise returns to its investors by investing in SME companies with high growth potential and management teams capable of delivering that growth.
The Capital Fund is managed by YFM Venture Finance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and part of the YFM Group. The YFM Group provides investment capital and business development services to SMEs throughout the UK. It currently has over £300 million in funds under management, with over 30 investment managers. For further information: www.yfmgroup.co.uk. Since April 2008, the YFM Group has been part of GLE Group: www.gle.co.uk
About Bury Fitzwilliam-Lay & Partners LLP
BFL&P is a UK based venture capital partnership focusing on technology and technology enabled companies. It primarily invests early stage and development capital, often alongside known and trusted co-investors, in deal sizes up to £5m. BFL&P brings to bear the wealth of expertise of its partners in managing companies through the difficult growth phase to maturity and/or exit.
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