MANCHESTER, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cytox Ltd, (Cytox) a leading developer of assays for risk assessment and prediction of dementia, today announced the successful completion of a second round of funding, closing at £1.5M.
New shareholders include Seneca Partners Ltd. and the round was led by existing shareholder, SPARK, Northwest Fund for Biomedical with strong support from other existing shareholders including Wren Capital and The Rainbow Seed Fund (Midven), as well as private investors.
This round brings the total raised by Cytox in the last 15 months in excess of £5M, following the close of the previous round of £3.5 in May 2013.
“We started an extensive evaluation programme for our mTOR pathway biomarker technology last month,” commented Dr. Richard Pither, CEO of Cytox, “This new money will allow us to extend the clinical research programme and more rapidly access potentially valuable utility claims.” Dr. Pither explained further that, “With two clinical programmes in both the European Union and North America, state of the art laboratory capabilities in Manchester UK and a partnership with a US-based laboratory, Selah Genomics, Cytox has progressed its plans rapidly in 2014.”
Dr. Pither also commented that the laboratory facilities and partnership would allow the company to partner with academia and industry in Europe and North America in the development of new Alzheimer’s disease therapies and biomarkers.
Richard Manley for Seneca commented: “We like the technology and the Cytox team and believe they have the ability to deliver significant value in a field with substantial unmet need. A simple blood-based biomarker of risk for Alzheimer’s would be a perfect complement to existing technology and could provide unique insight in very early disease where there are few symptoms or disease pathology to guide treatment.”
“We were pleased to be able to lead this new round and be joined by so many existing shareholders,” said Dr. Penny Attridge of SPARK Impact. “The Cytox management have executed well against plan and continue to identify new opportunities for value with this exciting new technology.”
About Cytox Limited
Cytox Limited is a UK company researching into the role of mTOR pathway dysfunction and the associated development of prognostic tests for cognitive decline and risk of developing AD or other dementias.
Cytox has exclusive rights to build on the discoveries made by the company’s scientific founder, Dr. Zsuzsanna Nagy, of cell cycle-related biomarkers associated with the risk of developing dementia. The company is developing her work and assessing its significance in trials and will be looking to work with pharmaceutical partners to develop our understanding of the technology and its role in drug development.
For more about the mTOR pathway and its potential role in early identification of risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, follow this link: www.cytoxgroup.com/information-for-editors.
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