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The
Capital Fund invests in Plasticell
The Capital Fund, a £50m venture capital fund formed to back fast growing small
and medium sized companies in the Greater London area and managed by YFM,
has announced this month that it has agreed to invest in Plasticell, a
London based, privately held biotechnology company. The investment follows
YFM's commissioning of Ithaka to undertake technical and commercial due
diligence of the Company earlier this year.
Plasticell uses innovative, high throughput stem cell technologies and
novel drug discovery platforms to dissect the mechanisms leading to
differentiation of stem cells, the master cells responsible for tissue
development and repair. The Company's research focus is to discover
regenerative small molecule drugs.
NVM Private Equity invests
£1m in Gentronix
Following NVM's commissioning of Ithaka to undertake commercial and
technology due diligence on University of Manchester spin-out company,
Gentronix, NVM has now committed £1 million as part of a funding round of
£1.4 million into the Company.
Gentronix has developed and patented a novel process for early identification
of genotoxic carcinogens in drugs in early stage development, offering the
potential for pharmaceutical companies to significantly reduce expenditure
on the development of drugs that subsequently fail to make it to market.
John Nicholson, CEO of Gentronix, said, 'With this new investment we will
be able to market effectively on a global basis to not o nly the
pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, but also to cosmetic, environmental and
fine chemical markets.'
New appointments at Psynova Neurotech
Psynova Neurotech has appointed Dr George McAllister as Head of R&D. He
was previously Head of Operations of Oxford Genome Sciences and prior to
that, Director, Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience, at Merck Sharp &
Dohme. Dr Tony Lewis has been appointed as IP and Contracts Manager.
Psynova Neurotech is a UK based company developing and exploiting novel
biomarkers for Neuropsychiatric illness. Ithaka was appointed by the
Cambridge University Proof of Concept Fund to develop the business plan,
following which Dr Paul Rodgers was appointed as Chairman of the new
company. Ithaka has successfully supported the raising of a £2.25 million
funding package from Porton Capital and Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds.
Ampika licenses Amazonian pain-treatment product
Ithaka's Dr Paul Rodgers, a non-executive director of Ampika, has helped
secure the licence agreement for the natural product formulation for pain,
NSL-101, to NeuroSolutions, a subsidiary of NeuroDiscovery, the
Australian-based neurology-focused R&D company.
Ithaka was an early adviser in the founding of Ampika, a spin-out company
from the Department of Social Anthropology at Cambridge University. Ampika
operates an ethical business model for its operation, which was set up to
exploit the knowledge base of Western Amazonian plants collected by its
Director of Research Dr FranĮoise Freedman.
The licensing of NSL-101 provides NeuroSolutions with a major opportunity
to develop a pain compound to address significant healthcare market needs
in the dietary supplement, functional food and pharmaceutical markets. Mark
Treherne, Chairman of NeuroDiscovery said, 'how delighted I am to be
working with Ampika and look forward to a fruitful collaboration.'
Theryte appoints Ithaka consultant to interim CEO
role
Ithaka consultant, Dr Bill Primrose has been appointed as Interim CEO of
Theryte a venture backed spin-out from the University of Liverpool. As part
of the services being provided by Ithaka to Theryte, Dr Paul Rodgers will
be supporting Bill in a strategic advisory role.
Theryte is developing novel anti-cancer drugs based on an understanding of
the genes involved in maintaining the viability of cancer cells developed
by the Theryte founding scientist, Prof Hilmar Warenius.
Since Ithaka became involved, Theryte has negotiated and signed research
contracts and collaboration deals with commercial operations in the UK and
continental Europe, and with the Universities of Southampton and Bradford.
Speaking about the relationship that has developed between Theryte and
Ithaka, Professor Warenius said, 'It has been extremely beneficial for
Theryte to work with Ithaka, which we have found to have a particularly
strong awareness of the needs of emerging biotechnology companies. In
particular, I have been impressed with Ithaka's commitment to detail and
understanding of the drug discovery process, which has really helped to
define Theryte's strategy for developing its lead compound and expanding
its IP portfolio. I look forward to continuing to work closely together in
the future, where we anticipate that Ithaka will pilot licensing
discussions with Pharma and a multi-million pound fund-raising for
pre-clinical development and exploitation of our novel cancer drug
targets.'
Development of business case for investment in PET
facilities
A market research project undertaken by Ithaka has led to the development
of new Positron Emission Tomography ("PET") facilities.
Ithaka carried out research for a Regional Development Agency considering
an investment in a PET scanner facility to provide both screening services
to the NHS and private healthcare service providers, and drug development
services to the pharmaceutical industry.
The research carried out by Ithaka has informed decision-making on a
strategic opportunity, and thanks to this, a business is now under
development around a PET scanning facility.
Coaching for growth
Ithaka has been appointed to provide an executive coaching service to
Cambridge Research Biochemicals, an established biotech company of 25
years. The work is receiving grant support from The City Technology Office
of Newcastle City Council, in partnership with the Centre of Excellence for
Life Science.
Emily Humphrys, Joint Founder and Commercial Director of Cambridge Research
Biochemicals commented that it had been important for the management of the
Company to take stock and review its plans during a period of growth and
change. 'It's been a very hectic period, but in a positive way - we are
very pleased with what we have achieved in the last few months as a
business.'
BBSRC mentoring
As part of the Royal Society of Edinburgh / BBSRC Enterprise Fellowship
scheme, Dr John Adair of Ithaka is providing a mentoring service, on a
voluntary basis, to Dr Gareth Richards of the School of Medicine and Biomedical
Sciences, University of Sheffield.
Gareth has formed his own company, Medella, to develop novel antibody based
products.
Connect Midlands
Ithaka has been appointed by Connect Midlands to coach the founder of an early
stage University business based in Nottingham through development of his
business plan and investor pitch. The project is funded by East Midlands
Development Agency's 'InvoRed' programme which supports businesses to
develop their plans to an 'investor ready' stage.
BIA Fledgling Club
The BIA has created the Fledgling Club to support, nurture and assist the
new emerging companies of today become the UK success stories of tomorrow.
Any biotech company that has raised less than £5m since inception is
eligible to join and access the range of benefits associated with the Club.
A series of events has already been planned for 2008.
The BIA consulted Ithaka on the Fledgling Club initiative and we are
pleased to support the BIA in this new development.
To find out more see:
www.bioindustry.org,
Email: membership@bioindustry.org
or call 020 7565 7190.
Expansion at Ithaka
To support our development, we are pleased to announce the appointment of a
new consultant Dr Grahaem Brown. He is an accredited specialist in Internal
Medicine, and has 20 years' experience of driving global development of
small molecules and biologicals, from discovery through to product launch
and life cycle management. Grahaem has worked for the major pharma
businesses including Glaxo, Novartis, Pharmacia and UCB/Celltech. He has a
proven track record in assessing potential collaboration opportunities,
conducting due diligence, and establishing and managing third party
relationships.
Ithaka Life Sciences was founded in 2000 and has completed more than 90
assignments for more than 50 clients, raising around £20m for early stage
companies.
We are an advisory and management business specialising in the
commercialisation of life science technologies.
Our clients include Management Teams and Boards of Life Science companies,
investors, Universities and other research institutions, and Public Sector
bodies such as Regional Development Agencies.
We support through:
- Business
creation and business plan drafting
- Sourcing
investment finance
- Commercial
strategy: development & implementation from start up through to
exit
- Interim
management
- Technical,
commercial and market evaluation
- Intellectual
property review
- Investment
opportunities: due diligence & portfolio analysis
If you would like to talk to us please
contact us using the details below or look out for us at one of the
following events.
Events
May 2007 - Paul Rodgers chaired a session on commercialisation of stem
cells at the European Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine Congress held
in London.
We look forward to meeting you at the
following events:
6th December 2007, UNICO conference,
Nottingham
www.unico.org.uk
13th December 2007, Genesis Conference,
London
www.genesisconference.com
31st January 2008, BIA Annual Gala
Dinner, London
www.bioindustry.org
6th/7th February 2008, Thistle
Bioscience Forum, Edinburgh
www.bioindustry.org
Contact us
At one of our 3 UK Regional offices below - central Switchboard 01223
703146 or via our website -
www.ithaka.co.uk
Head Office:
Dr Paul Rodgers
Ithaka Life Sciences Ltd
St. John's Innovation Centre
Cowley Road
Cambridge
CB4 0WS
North East:
Dr John Adair
The NetPark Incubator
Thomas Wright Way
NetPark, Sedgefield
Co. Durham
TS21 3FD
North West:
Sue Buchanan
26 Church St
Hayfield High
Peak Derbyshire
SK22 2JE
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