Cardiff University spin-out Q Chip raises £1M for micro-encapsulation technology

Funding

Q Chip Life Sciences has announced the completion of a £1 million funding led by the cleantech venture capital investor Curzon Park Capital. A spin-out from Cardiff University, Wales, Q Chip has developed a proprietary drug delivery technology in which biopharmaceuticals can be packaged within precision polymer microspheres.

The funding round, led by Curzon Park Capital and supported by the public fund Finance Wales, will enable Q Chip to complete in vivo research on its two leading products. It is planned to raise a further £5 million in 2010 to advance the products through pre-clinical development and establish drug development collaborations with pharmaceutical or biotech partners.

Sam Richardson, director of Curzon Park Capital, said mounting pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to cut waste and costs will open up huge opportunities for Q Chip’s drug delivery technology. “The end of the era of the multi-billion dollar blockbuster and increased competition as patents expire is forcing drug companies to develop cheaper new therapies and to slash the amount of expensive raw material used.”

To date, Q Chip, has so far raised £5 million and put in place an experienced management team led by chairman Ken Powell, a serial biotech entrepreneur.

“Q Chip’s bio-encapsulation manufacturing process, Q-Sphera [...] delivers increased uniformity and encapsulation efficiency at lower cost and with improved scalability, resulting in less waste and higher margins,” said Powell. Q Chip will be an attractive partner, enabling formulation and administration of novel protein and peptide therapies and product differentiation of biosimilars, which are set to become a key growth area.

The company is developing its own pipeline of biosimilar drugs, the first two of which are in preclinical development. “These are both a clear commercial opportunity and will provide proof of concept for Q-Sphera as the delivery system of choice for injectable biopharmaceuticals,” Powell said.