A York-based drug development company is seeking up to £2m to help secure its position at the forefront of the UK‘s fight against cancer.
Pro-Cure Therapeutics Limited, based in the Biocentre at York Science Park, has set out its strategy for the next four years and has ambitious plans to attack cancer stem cells by taking its exciting new drug candidates into clinical testing by 2012.
Having secured nearly £2.8m of investment to date, the company is now exploring new funding streams by taking part in the Investing in Health programme managed by Grant Thornton. Participation in the programme will help to widen Pro-Cure’s network of healthcare investors and will generate new funding opportunities for the company.
Pro-Cure has most recently secured investment of over £700,000 from its existing investors, led by the Yorkshire & Humber Equity Fund, managed by YFM Venture Finance Limited, and Yorkshire Cancer Research. The company has also won a £100,000 Yorkshire Forward research grant which will be used to undertake preliminary screening of the next batch of targets in prostate cancer.
Mick McLean, CEO of Pro-Cure, said: “We are seeking this investment to take our work to a significant milestone of showing early efficacy. We’ll then be able to attract more substantial investment to establish a pipeline of therapeutic candidates, take them through pre-clinical development and to validate additional targets in prostate and other cancers. The Investing in Health programme has been invaluable in introducing us to new investors looking for sound investments.”
Prostate cancer remains an area of major unmet medical need and is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in men worldwide. The prostate cancer drug market is estimated to be $5.2 billion worldwide, rising to $7 billion by 2015.
Mick McLean continued: “We believe that novel targeted therapies such as ours will be used in combination with traditional drugs. This will lead to a considerable change in the market and represents a major opportunity for the company, our investors and our partners.”
Lisa Ward, manager of the Investing in Health programme at Grant Thornton, predicts a bright future for the company: “Pro-Cure is looking for further investment in order to carry out their future development plans. We are helping them to explore funding opportunities throughout the UK, the EU and the USA.”
As a result of the latest financing, Pro-Cure has strengthened its Board with the appointments of David Livesley and Dr David Milroy as directors. David Livesley who represents YFM Venture Finance Limited which led the last round said, “I have been very impressed by the obvious expertise of the company in this emerging therapeutic area as well as the strength of the management team with their clear focus on value creation and I am delighted to be joining their Board at this exciting time in the company’s development.” David Milroy is a fund manager with Maven Capital Partners and represents White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund, one of the company’s founder shareholders who also participated in the last funding round.
The Investing in Health programme forms part of Yorkshire Forward’s ongoing strategy to support the development of the healthcare technologies industry in Yorkshire and Humber.
Visit the investing in health website to find out more about the programme.