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Qkine Secures Additional £550K to Extend Development of R&D Pipeline and Accelerate Commercialisation of Product Portfolio

June 3, 2019 Off By BusinessWire

CAMBRIDGE, England–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#Cambridge–Qkine, specialist manufacturer of proteins for stem cell, organoid and
regenerative medicine applications has closed a further round of
investment. The £550k funding round was led by Cambridge Enterprise and
five angel investors – all of whom followed initial seed investments
made in April 2018. Joining the original investors is biotech
entrepreneur and founder member of the Cambridge Angels, Dr Andy
Richards CBE.

Stem cells are revolutionising medicine by enabling new approaches for
disease modelling, precision medicine and development of new
therapeutics. University of Cambridge spin-out, Qkine, uses proprietary
technologies and protein engineering techniques to produce exceptionally
high purity growth factors and cytokines. Qkine’s technologies enable it
to solve scientific challenges such as structural heterogeneity, poor
stability and solubility and spurious interactions with other
biomolecules, and provide more reliable tools for research and
bio-manufacturing.

The investment enables Qkine to establish its UK manufacturing base at
Cambridge Science Park, fuel the expansion of its research team and
further develop its active R&D pipeline.

Commenting on his investment, Jim Warwick, Angel Investor and
Chairman, Qkine said: “Following my initial investment in Qkine
was a no-brainer – its growth factors are developed from a genuinely
differentiating technology, the market for these reagents is growing
rapidly and the company’s founders have great, complementary skill sets.”

Dr Andy Richards added: “Catherine (Elton) and team
have done a great job at Qkine, I am excited to join their investors in
this round as they move to their new facility, scale up their
team, extend their R&D pipeline and expand their commercial ambitions.
The need for quality and reproducibility in stem cell biology and
exciting new areas such as organoids is driving a growing market that
Qkine is uniquely positioned to satisfy.”

Qkine is also delighted to welcome Dr Christine Martin, Investment
Manager (Life Sciences), Cambridge Enterprise to the board.
Christine commented: “Cambridge Enterprise is pleased to support
Qkine as it takes its next steps. The need for high quality cytokines
and growth factors continues to expand, and Qkine is poised to meet the
demand with a catalogue of products to support research into stem cell,
organoid and regenerative medicine applications.”

To discover more about Qkine please visit www.qkine.com

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