Novacta Biosystems Attracts New Investment

WELWYN GARDEN CITY, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Novacta Biosystems, the Welwyn Garden City based biotechnology company, has recently completed a €600,000 investment round from new investors including Esperante, existing shareholders Westgate Hall, GEIF Ventures and Oxford Technology 4 VCT as well as a number of other new and existing investors.

“Novacta represents an optimal investment proposition for Esperante by offering a professional management team, therapeutic developments in major indications and a revenue-generating business.”

Novacta is developing naturally-derived products primarily as novel anti-infective agents for hospital-based infections. Its lead product candidate for treatment of the hospital acquired infections caused by Clostridium difficile is in preclinical development. C. difficile infections were associated with twice as many deaths in UK hospitals last year as MRSA. Cases of C. difficile infections, which occur in the lower digestive tract, rose by 22 per cent in the past year and affected more than 15,500 people over 65 in the first quarter of this year. New anti-infective agents are needed that specifically target C. difficile and not the other bacteria involved in maintaining a healthy gut environment. Novacta’s candidates show this potential.

The investment will be used primarily to progress Novacta’s C. difficile candidates in pre-clinical testing towards clinical trials, in addition to its pipeline of therapeutic agents that target other infections including MRSA, as well as other programmes designated for antiviral and oncology indications.

Novacta’s technologies allow it not only to develop novel products but also to develop new methods for making high value chemicals using natural catalysts, known as biotransformations that are cleaner and more efficient than some of the traditional methods. Consequently Novacta has established a number of revenue generating alliances with other companies.

Commenting on the investment, Dr Fiona Marston, Chief Executive of Novacta Biosystems, said “Novacta is delighted to have attracted this investment round. This funding will enable us to advance our C.difficile candidate towards clinical trials and Novacta expects to raise further capital this year to support clinical development of this candidate and to advance the development of the pipeline."

Dean Slagel of Esperante said, “Novacta represents an optimal investment proposition for Esperante by offering a professional management team, therapeutic developments in major indications and a revenue-generating business."