Gene therapy supplier MIP Discovery closes £7M Series A financing

The £7m Series A financing of British gene therapy vector specialist MIP Discovery Ltd was led by lMercia Ventures.Existing investor Calculus Capital also participated in the round, along with Angel investors.

The company said it will use the proceeds to drive further commercialisation of MIP Discovery’s novel synthetic affinity reagents and to hire staff. MIP Discovery’s non-biological affinity reagents support a new approach to viral vector characterisation, viral vector purification, and safety and QC processes, such as the detection and removal of impurities.

MIP Discovery develops Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (synthetic antibodies). The business has developed a novel, proprietary design and development process to make nanoMIPs; nano scale molecularly imprinted polymers, each with a high affinity, high specificity binding site. They are very robust in extreme temperatures and varying pH, enabling new applications where antibodies have reached their limits.

Viral vectors are a critical component for most cell and gene therapies, and yet many of the current technologies used to characterise, develop, and manufacture them do not meet the required standards for scale, performance, or economics. MIP Discovery’s synthetic antibody alternatives offer a fresh approach to downstream processing for cell and gene therapy developers. MIP Discovery considers both the target and end-use application during the design phase of its reagents, offering an advanced alternative to biologicals with greater possibilities for characterization and downstream processing.