NW Fund supports £250k Tomorrow’s Medicines investment

A NORTH West company which has developed a technology-based platform to recruit candidates for clinical trials, has raised more than £250,000 in a funding round.

Tomorrow’s Medicines based at the Sci-Tech Daresbury business campus, has won investment including £100,500 from the North West Fund for Biomedical, £500,000 from the Technology Strategy Board with the balance coming from private investors.

The firm’s innovation is a web platform called YourTreatmentChoices.com where patients can find and join local clinical trials. It also serves global pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostic, academic and other research organisation study teams by recruiting and retaining trial participants.

Delays in patient recruitment can impede the launch of new medicines to market. In the UK, issues with patient recruitment mean that 40% of trials do not complete at all.

The funding will be used by Tomorrow Medicines to commercialise the YourTreatmentChoices.com platform and service. So far, the website has helped patients in 78 countries to find approved clinical trials.

Chief executive Dr Clare Nolan said said the successful fund-raising was a recognition of the important service the company offers.

“”It will enable us to provide a fully-supported service to global pharmaceutical, biotech and diagnostic companies looking to accelerate patient recruitment across all clinical areas. The clinical trial recruitment process is critical for the discovery of much-needed medical treatments and we can now make this process simpler, faster and more accessible.”

Dr Penny Attridge, senior investment director at SPARK Impact and manager of The North West Fund for Biomedical, said: “From day one we could see the potential in Tomorrows Medicines’ novel, interactive platform for patient recruitment and retention services.

“Clinical research offers exciting drug discovery opportunities and we hope the investments will make a real difference to continue to grow the company.”

Melanie Yeomans, corporate finance partner at the Manchester office of law firm Ward Hadaway, advised SPARK on the investment.

Tomorrow Medicines is The North West Fund for Biomedical’s 60th investment to date.