A U.K. drug development firm has raised £9.6 million from private equity investors, including £2m from Scottish Enterprise, to fund partnerships with university researchers. TPP Global Development, founded by former Morgan Stanley fund manager Peter Trill and Oxford University scientist Dr. Tom Brown, has chosen Edinburgh’s BioQuarter as its base. The pair will assess molecules created by scientists in universities and research institutions and then license the substances that show the most potential for creating new drugs.
TPP will guide the molecules through the “biotech funding gap” between basic research and drug development before setting up spinout companies to refine the drugs or licensing them out to bigger firms. The firm’s focus includes oncology; nervous system disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis; and inflammations and immunology, including asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
Finance director Trill said TPP was attracted to Scotland because of its universities, contract research organizations, and the cluster being created at Edinburgh’s BioQuarter. Trill expects TPP to benefit from cutbacks in early-stage drug development work at major pharmaceutical groups. “There has always been a funding shortfall for early-stage research,” he adds. “This will become ever more acute as the pharma industry continues to reduce spending on preclinical research, instead looking to in-license late-stage preclinical drugs, and the economic environment puts pressure on government and medical charity research funding.”
Source: Scotsman.com Business