Incanthera secures further investment

LIVERPOOL cancer treatment specialist Incanthera has raised at least £650,000 as it prepares its treatment for clinical trials.

Existing investor, the European Union-backed North West Fund for Biomedical, has put in a further £450,000. Private investors have commited £200,000.

A further, indisclosed tranche, has come from US and London-based Technomark Life Sciences.

The company – a University of Bradford spin-out that relocated to Liverpool Science Park last year after securing cash from the North West Fund – has come up with a treatment that allows highly toxic drugs to attack tumours without harming the patient.

Chief executive Dr Simon Ward said: “[The treatment] ICT2588 is now being recognised by the industry as a serious and appealing new drug opportunity and we hope to now move rapidly to the clinic.

“I am particularly pleased to have Technomark as a investor and partner in these early stages of the development, as they appreciate and provide a solution to the prevailing investor-shy commitment to pre-clinical work, without which no new drugs would ever make it to the patient.”