Member Article

Newcastle drugs firm land £350,000 investment

Newcastle-based drug discovery company Molplex Ltd has received £350,000 of investment to expand current products and open a base in the North West.

The investment from the North West Fund for Biomedical could lead to lower costs of inventing new medicines, as Molplex will use the the money to establish proof of concept with their product.

Molplex has developed automated decision making systems using predictive chemistry and biology software which incorporate critical decisions made by drug development professionals during the early stages of drug discovery and design.

The process aims to make safer and better quality drugs, developed at a fraction of the cost and much faster than traditional R&D will allow.

SPARK Impact manage the Fund, which is financed by the ERDF and the European Investment Bank.

David Leahy, CEO of Molplex said: “We would like to thank The North West Fund for Biomedical for supporting our transformation into the first of a new class of an ultra-effective drug discovery business.

“Molplex’s novel approach to the automation of drug discovery decision making can radically lower the cost of inventing new medicines, while increasing the quality of the new drug candidates. This funding creates an opportunity for us to convert that promise into reality.”

Northstar Ventures originally invested in Molplex and Richard Exley from Northstar, echoed his support for further funding: “We are pleased to see the expansion of Molplex beyond its original North East base, whilst also growing its operations in the North East with the chief operating officer and co-founder, Vladimir Sykora remaining in the North East office.

“Molplex has potentially disruptive technologies for drug discovery which led to our original investment and the company is now well positioned to move forwards in the market.”

Melanie Yeomans, corporate finance partner at Ward Hadaway, led the team advising on the deal.

She added: “We are delighted to have assisted SPARK Impact on this investment from The North West Fund.

“Molplex is involved in some truly ground-breaking work which has the potential to make a real difference to the development of vital new drugs and treatment.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .