Newcells Biotech – whose laboratory models help speed up drug development and reduce reliance on animal testing - has raised a further £1.2m from existing investors Mercia Ventures, Northstar Ventures and North East Finance.
The funding will enable the Newcastle-based company to build its customer base and seek new partnerships with companies with complementary products to enhance its offering to customers.
Newcells’ 3D models, which mimic tissues within the body, are used to test drugs under development and provide data to support key decisions on which drugs to progress into human trials. They enable companies to bring drugs to market more quickly and at lower cost than using animal testing and have also proven to be better at predicting how a drug will behave in the human body. Newcells currently offers models of the retina, kidney and lung and also provides a service carrying out tests on customers’ behalf.
The use of advanced 3D models has attracted increasing interest after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed its rules two years ago, removing the requirement for new drugs to be tested on animals. Research has found that around 90% of drugs shown to be safe and effective in animals do not work as planned in humans, which is one reason for the high failure rate in drug development.
Newcells was founded in 2015 by Dr Mike Nicholds and Professor Lyle Armstrong as a spin-out from the University of Newcastle. It now employs 42 staff and serves pharmaceutical companies worldwide. As part of the latest funding round, the company has appointed Dr Mark Carnegie-Brown as Chair. Mark has over 30 years’ leadership experience in corporate and biotech environments within the pharma industry.
