Abingdon Health and University of Birmingham to invest £2 million in Joint Venture
Bioscience Ventures Ltd is commercialising IP from the UOB
Abingdon Health Ltd (“Abingdon” or “the Company”), a specialist medical diagnostics company, and the University of Birmingham announce that they have each committed £1 million of investment into their joint venture, Biosciences Ventures Limited (“Bioscience Ventures”), which is commercialising the intellectual property generated at the University in the field of medical diagnostics.
Bioscience Ventures, which was launched in November 2010, is developing and marketing new diagnostics tools for conditions where there is currently an unmet medical need, focussing on therapeutic areas such as oncology and genetic diseases. It is also commercialising a proprietary platform technology with many potential applications including the detection of infectious diseases, drug testing and in veterinary medicine.
The funds will be used to invest in new opportunities within the University as well as accelerate the development of Bioscience Venture’s existing companies including Serascience Ltd, which is developing point-of-care (near-patient) devices for the management of myeloma and related conditions, and Alta Bioscience Ltd which is expanding its speciality chemical synthesis and analysis services.
Chris Hand, CEO of Abingdon Health, said: “This investment demonstrates both Abingdon’s and the University’s commitment to Bioscience Ventures and our confidence in its ability to create added value from this intellectual property. Through combining the University’s world-class expertise and intellectual property with Abingdon’s strong track record of commercialisation, we are creating a new range of products that address the growing demand for faster, simpler and more accurate diagnostic tools. This investment by the University of Birmingham is unusual in that it is investing directly in its own IP in this way rather than via a technology transfer partner. We are in a strong position to take a share of the US$11.2bn global immunodiagnostics market.”
Professor David Eastwood, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, said: “Bioscience Ventures is one of the innovative ways in which the University engages with business to transform our IP into benefits for the economy and society. Our partnership with Abingdon Health is proving to be highly effective and I am delighted to announce this further investment to take the pioneering products of Bioscience Ventures to market.”
About Bioscience Ventures
Bioscience Ventures combines the research and clinical capabilities of the University with the commercial management expertise of Abingdon Health, for effective exploitation of University IP and fast track product development. It currently has the following companies…