Ingenza celebrates SME success
Ingenza has announced its successful EU Horizon 2020 SME Instrument funding of €50,000 for Phase 1 of its innovative SYNBIOMAN project.
The funding allows Ingenza to forge ahead with the development of its novel synthetic biology-driven biomanufacturing platform. Successful completion of the Phase 1 study could open the door to additional funding for Phase 2, valued at around €2.5m.
SYNBIOMAN will build on Ingenza’s exclusive industrial synthetic and systems biology tools, helping small and medium-sized biotechnology enterprises to close the gap from lab to market by developing good manufacturing practice (GMP) capabilities that target the production of therapeutic proteins.
Frequently, these drug candidates are sourced from low yielding organisms, have highly complex structures, or are very toxic. As a result, they can be challenging to manufacture, preventing the development of new therapies for currently unmet clinical needs.
Dr David McElroy, chief business officer at Ingenza, said: “We are delighted to have secured EU H2020 SME Instrument support for this project. The Horizon 2020 programme receives thousands of funding applications each year, and fewer than 5% of applicants are successful. It is a real achievement for our scientific research to be recognised in this way.”
The Phase 1 project aims to define the activities required to achieve GMP compliance for a first, highly potent target biologic; demonstrate scale up; test the market to ensure a robust business model; and confirm freedom to operate.
Ingenza expects to reach the market in 2019, initially creating ten high value biomanufacturing jobs.
