BioCity Nottingham-based CompanDX Limited, the Nottingham Trent University spinout applying novel bio-informatics technology to the issues of personalised medicine, is pleased to announce the raising of 39,600,000 Renminbi (CN¥) (£3.9m) for development of products in China.

"This is an extraordinary step for an early stage technology company and allows us to put a significant capital sum to work," says Chief Executive Dr Simon Haworth. "The China deal provides a shop window for how our technology can be applied in a diagnostic setting and helps us prove the viability of our technology platform to potential pharma and mid-cap partners interested in patient stratification for clinical trial purposes."

The nature of Chinese funding support is creative to UK eyes: cash is being provided by both government and private sources on a non-dilutive basis. ‘Investors' gain a proportion of downstream revenue from successful products sold in China, rather than equity in the company. Pace of product development is also enhanced in China with work accelerated in comparison to UK and US markets by the nature of the regulatory regime, and the willingness of major regional Science Parks to provide funding for accelerated development for products relevant to the Chinese marketplace. Details of the CompanDX China office will be released shortly.

Dr Glenn Crocker, CEO of BioCity Nottingham says: "The recent paucity of early stage funding in our sector has stifled expansion and potential growth for companies at a critical stage of their development, but CompanDX has shown great initiative in sourcing finance this way. Several of our other fast-growing companies could learn from this model, so we will watch the CompanDX development with interest."

CompanDX expects to generate revenue from Approved products in under three years.

Foir further information visit www.compandx.com

About CompanDX

CompanDX is a spinout from the School of Science & Technology at Nottingham Trent University and was established by Professors Ball and Rees in 2009. The company originally secured investment from the Lachesis and Mobius funds and marketed support services for research on a Fee-for-service basis. In 2012 the team re-focussed the business beyond oncology to wider applications in the fast-growing field of personalised medicine through drug re-development and trial involvement for all major indications.

The Management Team includes Dave Tapolczay, Chairman (CEO of MRCt), Dr Simon Haworth CEO (Founder of Team Kapital and Team Ventures), plus Prof. Graham Ball (Director) and Prof. Robert Rees (Director) of the J van Geest Cancer Research Centre in Nottingham.

CompanDX is located at BioCity Nottingham and the new Stevenage BioScience Catalyst.
 

About BioCity Nottingham Ltd

BioCity Nottingham Ltd has developed and operates one of the largest bioscience incubators in Europe. Home to around 70 early-stage businesses it is a hot-bed of entrepreneurial activity in the sector. As well as providing very flexible laboratory and office facilities, BioCity Nottingham is able to provide on-site a whole range of non-core but vital services to businesses which would otherwise be costly and inefficient for them to develop in-house. This ensures that companies with BioCity Nottingham have maximum opportunity for success and investors see the most efficient use of their funds.