A SCOTTISH company has raised £1.6 million to help push forward a product that could boost the manufacture of new therapies.
The backing will help Cytomos progress its new approach to analysing cells with its platform, Cytomos Dielectric Spectroscopy (CDS).
The Edinburgh-based life science company said the funding will allow it to grow its team, deliver its next generation sensor and analytics for real time monitoring and analysis of cells and expand its customer engagement.
The fundraising round by Cytomos was led by existing investor Archangels with participation from Scottish Enterprise and Old College Capital.
Cytomos said it has developed its technology platform to address "unmet needs" of the biopharma industry, providing a low-cost, portable and scalable alternative.
It said CDS has the potential to help companies react in real time, enabling prioritisation to minimise costs, both in terms of time and operating expense as well as qualitative aspects.
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The platform is aimed at enabling non-specialist users to perform cell analysis without requirement for typical cell labelling reagents, delivering results faster, simplifying the logistics of testing and reducing costs.
The firm said improved cell analysis can help to unlock multiple markets with very high growth potential, including drug development bio-processing, vaccine production and cell and gene therapy manufacture. Analysts estimate the value of the global market for single-cell analysis is expected to reach $6.3 billion by 2026.
Dr Alan Raymond, executive chairman at Cytomos, said: “We now have the growth capital required to advance the development of our novel process analytical technology platform to the next phase of prototype evaluation with our strategic partners.
"This is an important milestone in the journey to deliver our mission to enable the development and manufacture of life saving biologic therapies.”
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Archangels was founded in 1992 and is claimed to be “the oldest continuously operating business angel syndicate investing in early-stage Scottish life sciences and technology companies”.
The syndicate was an early investor in Cytomos and has supported the team through early-stage development of the business.
Cytomos said it has made significant progress over the last year in developing its technology platform and has successfully tested its protype devices in the field, enabling understanding of performance criteria and areas of development focus required to meet user needs, secured the key patent for CDS in the US and appointed an experienced board and scientific advisory board.
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Sarah Hardy, of Archangels, said: “The demand for single-cell and label-free analysis tools is soaring and the CDS platform developed by Cytomos is uniquely placed to provide a low cost, real-time format that is highly scalable. and easy to operate with a small footprint.”
Kerry Sharp, of Scottish Enterprise, said that “encouraging and supporting businesses in this sector, such as Cytomos, to innovate and grow is a priority”.
Archangels comprises around 120 members and a five-strong full time executive team.
In 2021, the syndicate invested £11.8m to reach a total of £23.6m including co-investment from Scottish Government agencies and other partners.
There are currently 21 companies within the portfolio.
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