UCL Purification Technology Licensed to Puridify Receives £850,000 in Seed Funding

UCLB has invested in the next phase of development for Puridify, a newly formed company providing purification solutions for biotherapeutic manufacturing. The £850,000 seed financing ring has been led by Imperial Innovations and SR One Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline’s venture capital fund.

Puridify’s technology was developed in the world-leading Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at UCL. UCLB, the technology transfer office for UCL, reviewed and evaluated the technology, filed the initial patents and licensed this technology to Puridify in 2014. The company has received additional matched-funding awards totalling £780,000 from the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, to support advancement of the technology.

Puridify is developing a proprietary nanofibre technology to improve the efficiency of purification in biopharmaceutical production, allowing more drug product to be produced in a shorter amount of time and at lower cost. This is critical to the industry as it will enable more biopharmaceuticals of the future to justify the economics of their development.

Professor Nigel Titchener-Hooker, Head of Department of the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at UCL, said: “UCL Biochemical Engineering is excited to see the progress of a spin-out technology that builds on the department’s 60 year history of working with industry to optimise biotherapeutic manufacture.”

About UCL Business PLC
UCL Business PLC (UCLB) is a leading technology transfer company that supports and commercialises research and innovations arising from UCL, one of the UK’s top research-led universities. UCLB has a successful track record and a strong reputation for identifying and protecting promising new technologies and innovations from UCL academics. UCLB has a strong track record in commercialising medical technologies and provides technology transfer services to UCL’s associated hospitals; University College London Hospitals, Moorfields Eye Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal Free London Hospital. It invests directly in development projects to maximise the potential of the research and manages the commercialisation process of technologies from laboratory to market.

For further information, please visit: www.uclb.com