An advanced medical imaging company has secured £1.2m investment from two early stage technology investors

BiOxyDyn Ltd has received the investment, jointly from The North West Fund for Biomedical, managed by SPARK Impact and MTI Ventures’ UMIP Premier Fund (UPF).

The North West Fund for Biomedical is a sub-fund of The North West Fund, which is jointly financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank.

The Manchester Science Parks-based company is a spin out from the University of Manchester and of UMIP’s Proof of Principle (PoP) programme, and has developed technology used in conjunction with an MRI scan to produce better quality images, particularly of the lungs.

With millions of people worldwide affected by chronic lung conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, better imaging can mean earlier, more accurate diagnosis and improved patient monitoring.

The £1.2m funding means BiOxyDyn can look to expand its imaging service business and develop its technology into a diagnostic product.

In addition to this major investment milestone, the company is working to deliver valuable service contracts into the pharmaceutical industry and has recently moved to larger premises, had a number of patents awarded, expanded its management team and staffing and achieved ISO 9001 accreditation for ensuring quality management within the business.

Founder, Prof Geoff Parker said: “We now offer a professional and accredited imaging service to pharma and with this investment we will expand this service into a product that lung clinicians can use around the world.

“We would like to thank MTI Partners for their support in helping us establish BiOxyDyn, and for their continued support, and we would like to thank SPARK Impact for joining in our vision and committing to work with us over the next few years.”

Penny Attridge, senior investment director at SPARK Impact and fund manager of The North West Fund for Biomedical, said: “This technology has the potential to make a big impact in the lung diagnostics market and beyond so it’s exciting to be able to invest in this company.

“I think BiOxyDyn has a bright future and I look forward to following how they grow as a business and hope to launch the product onto the medical imaging market.”

Investment Partner of MTI Ventures, Dr Mark Rahn said: “Prof Parker’s technology was the first PoP project to be supported by UPF in 2008.

“In 2010 MTIP backed the resulting spin-out individually and we are now delighted that the business has developed to a point where an experienced new investor has joined. This is further validation that our methodology of investing in university projects, with PoP finance, produces high quality investment prospects”.

BiOxyDyn is the 25th investment for The North West Fund for Biomedical.

Law firm Laytons Solicitors, which has offices in Guildford, London and Manchester, advised on the deal.

For more information about BiOxyDyn visit www.bioxydyn.com