Abingdon Health Raises £2.1M; Acquires Serascience

Abingdon Health, a Birmingham and York, UK-based rapid diagnostic technology company, raised £2.1m from current shareholders.

Backers included Imperial Innovations, the University of Birmingham and co-founder and CEO Dr Chris Hand. In conjunction with the funding, Dr James Wilkie, CEO of the University of Birmingham’s technology transfer company, Alta Innovations, joined the board of Abingdon Health.

The additional investment will be used to continue to expand development programmes and scale up of manufacture.

Abingdon, which was formed in 2008, also completed the acquisition of Serascience Limited. Serascience was formed in April 2011 through Abingdon Health’s and the University of Birmingham’s joint venture, Bioscience Ventures Limited (BSVL), which develops early stage diagnostics opportunities to the point at which they can be licensed, acquired, or sold as a service. Serascience licensed a portfolio of monoclonal antibodies from the University of Birmingham that include those which are specific for aiding the diagnosis of myeloma and related conditions. Its first product to market will be Seralite®, a near patient diagnostic device for multiple myeloma. The acquisition comes at the point where the company is undergoing beta-trials for Seralite® a rapid test for the diagnosis and monitoring of myeloma, and MGUS progression. This market is estimated to be worth over £200m per annum.

FinSMEs

24/10/2014

Join the discussion