UK-based biotech aims to be the first fridge-free vaccine company in the world.
Stablepharma Ltd, a UK-based biotech who have a novel technology platform for fridge-free vaccines, has announced the completion of the first close of their Series A, with £2 million. Funding came from existing shareholders and new investors such as Ascension Ventures and Family Offices across Canada, Australia, UK and Europe.
Stablepharma will use the proceeds of the funding round to complete FIH (First in Human) clinical trials with StablevaX Td (Tetanus diphtheria) with European vaccine manufacturer BB-NCIPD Ltd (BulBio), advance their COVID mRNA programme in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, scale up GMP manufacturing and expand existing R&D facilities in Madrid, Spain.
This fundraise follows a previous seed round on the CrowdCube platform, that saw Stablepharma raise an over-subscribed £1.3 million to commence its Td vaccine animal studies. Earlier this year, Stablepharma announced very encouraging animal data for both Td and COVID mRNA programmes. To date, the company have raised over $5 million from Seed to Series A.
Stablepharma is an innovative biotech company developing a wide range of next generation, reformulated thermostable vaccine products. Stablepharma was founded by Dr Bruce Roser, Chairman & Founder, with a simple purpose; to use its novel technology to dramatically improve health outcomes for those adults & children most at risk of death and disability caused by vaccine preventable diseases. www.stablepharma.com.
In April 2021, Stablepharma announced the appointment of Özgür Tuncer as CEO & Executive Director. Özgür joined Stablepharma from his recent role as Global Vice President of IQVIA and previously, Pfizer in the US. ‘This is an exceptionally successful first close of our Series A round which has been well supported by our existing shareholders and global family offices. We have managed to complete the round within a matter of weeks and this will be followed by a second close within the next 3-6 months. Given the focus on the Pandemic and the challenges of mRNA vaccine distribution and accessibility due to extreme cold chain requirements, we have already secured interest from several institutional investors including Private Equity / Venture Capital firms’, said Özgür Tuncer.
Currently, the ‘cold chain’ is a significant barrier in front of transporting and storing COVID mRNA vaccines, particularly in countries with unreliable infrastructures, such as India and Brazil. The WHO estimate that up to 50% of all vaccines manufactured currently lose their efficacy before they can be delivered, often as a result of ‘cold-chain’ failures.
Ascension Life Fund, a London-based early-stage impact venture capital investor commented, ‘we are is delighted to have participated in Stablepharma’s funding round. It’s a business that we’ve been tracking for several years and we were impressed with their technical/commercial progress, the strength of the team and their solution to a growing, real-world problem. Stablepharma’s technology addresses two pressing issues: removing the bottleneck of thermostable vaccines reaching those in need as well as reducing vaccine wastage and its associated carbon footprint/climate impact’.
Nick Child, VP & Co Founder of Stablepharma added, ‘We are delighted with the success of this round and the response from our shareholders and investors. We raised £2 million in a three-week period, from start to completion and have seen an excellent valuation uplift of 40% from our 2018 CrowdCube fund raise – this is all positive news for our shareholders’.
Available for comment, contribution and collaboration are:
- Özgür Tuncer, CEO & Executive Director: otuncer@stablepharma.com
- Nick Child, VP & Co-Founder: nchild@stablepharma.com
About Stablepharma
Stablepharma Ltd is an innovative biotech company developing a range of next generation thermostable vaccine products. Stablepharma was founded with a simple purpose; to use its novel technology to dramatically improve health outcomes for those adults & children most at risk of death and disability caused by vaccine preventable diseases. www.stablepharma.com.
StablevaX™ is a novel thermo-stabilisation technology and reformulation platform with strong in-vitro and in-vivo animal potency data that aims to eliminate the cold chain.
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