Glen Clova Scientific closes £4 million seed funding round
Summary
Glen Clova Scientific has closed a \xa34m seed financing round, led by Norcliffe Capital, with investment from DSW Ventures, TRICAPITAL Angels and Scottish Enterprise.The investment will be made in two tranches of \xa32.5m and \xa31.5m.Founded in 2022 as a spin-out from the University of Dundee, the business is developing a new generation of active biologic drugs for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.The money should help advance the preclinical development of its three initial drug candidates: GCS001 for treatment of senile pruritus, GCS002 for atopic dermatitis and GCS003 for eczema and asthma.The company has developed a novel virus-like particle (VLP) platform which underpins its product development pipeline and its technology is designed to be exploited in several non-pharmaceutical markets through partnerships.Glen Clova Scientifics pre-clinical candidates are based on two decades of research in VLPs by co-founder Dr John Foerster and his team at the University of Dundee. DFoersters group has overcome many of the current limitations of VLP, including structural fragility, costly manufacture and poor stability.Steven Powell, co-founder of Glen Clova Scientific, commented: Our GCS VLP platform has the potential to produce a new generation of active biologic drugs offering both enhanced performance and a simpler, more cost-effective manufacturing process compared with existing biologic drugs.We believe that these drugs can have a significant impact on large patient populations with poorly met medical needs.We are delighted to have attracted support from a syndicate of high-quality, experienced investors to finance the development of our drug development pipeline and the continued expansion of our proprietary technology platform.Patricia Reynolds, chief executive of Norcliffe Capital said: The immunisation technology developed by Dr John Foerster is a major innovation for an already successful technology.It will improve both the quality of the products and the cost of manufacturing, opening out applications outside Glen Clovas core interests.Doug Quinn, partner at DSW Ventures, added: Inflammatory skin conditions affect millions worldwide, but current treatments require regular injections and frequent monitoring and often have side effects.Glen Clovas treatment would offer new hope for these patients and at less than 20% of the cost of comparable drugs.Dont miss the latest headlines with our twice-daily newsletter - sign up here for free.