Biofortuna

Biofortuna has raised £1 million ($1.6 million), which it will use to develop a market for its diagnostic genotyping products and new products.

The funding, provided alongside Catapult Venture Managers, Merseyside Special Investment Fund and the company’s Non-Executive Directors, is part of a £1million funding package, which will be used to develop the market for the company’s diagnostic genotyping products and to allow it to continue development of its future product pipeline.

The company designs and develops innovative genotyping and antibody screening tests for the clinical healthcare market. It creates easy-to-use diagnostics that address complex genotyping issues. Its novel processes, extensive experience and patented techniques are directly applicable to genetic tests for use in organ transplantation and management, blood banking, disease identification, microbiology and pharmacogenomics. Its tests aim to increase laboratory productivity and improve quality in clinical testing and patient care.

Mike Bunce, CEO of Biofortuna Limited, commented, “Biofortuna is very pleased to continue working with our investors EV, Catapult, Liverpool Seed Fund and our external investors. This further investment will enable us to continue to develop our ground breaking freeze dried diagnostic kits and consolidate our position as a unique global innovator in clinical diagnostics and lyophilisation techniques.

Mark Hurley, Chairman of Biofortuna Limited, commented, “We have seen Biofortuna make outstanding progress in the last year, and this latest investment clearly demonstrates that the Board’s confidence and enthusiasm is shared by our external investors. We are delighted to have the continued support of EV, alongside Catapult and Liverpool Seed Fund and we are all looking forward to further innovation and enhancement of our products, and to the company’s continuing success.

Legal advice to the Investors was provided by Jon Gill of Eversheds, and to the company by Craig Scott and Richard McKay of Hill Dickinson.
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About Biofortuna Limited

Transplantation of bone marrow and solid organs (e.g. heart, kidney and lungs) carries a risk of rejection. To minimise this risk, both patients and donors undergo DNA typing for the major transplantation antigens, known as HLA antigens, and screening for the presence of antibodies that are directed at potential donor HLA antigens. There is a variety of methods for carrying out these tests already available on the market but they are either difficult to perform in large quantities and are therefore time consuming and expensive, or they can be carried out relatively quickly but provide a low specificity and resolution and therefore provide relatively coarse results when trying to match donor with recipient. Speed and accuracy of testing is important in solid organ transplantation: helping prevent organ rejection, easier interpretation of tests and helping reduce the cold storage time of organs which is a major factor in early function of a transplanted kidney.

Biofortuna has developed a unique range of products to provide both speed and accuracy to genotyping and antibody screening thereby reducing the number of transplants that fail and, in so doing, reduce post-transplantation mortality rates. Survival rates have improved over the last 20 years but despite this, 7% of solid organ transplants fail in the first year, rising to 17% after 5 years. 4% of recipients of solid organ transplants die within the first year (UK Transplant audit 2008).

The fundamental premise for the Biofortuna product range is to produce exceptional, cost-effective quality products that improve ease of use and thereby reduce error and above all to improve specificity and accuracy compared to those products currently available. The first of these products is a unique complete dried PCR system for genotyping HLA. The system has the benefit of greater simplicity, speed and accuracy over conventional systems with the added benefit of being ecologically sound as the kits are entirely stable at a wide range of temperatures thus removing the need to ship or store on ice. Biofortuna intends to apply this philosophy of accurate, easy to use methodology that is ecologically sound to all future products.

Biofortuna’s technology platform can be adapted to provide genotyping products to identify potential adverse drug reactions or check the efficacy of expensive drugs such as immunosuppressant’s. There are very few approved pharmacogenomic tests available at present; however increased healthcare costs and improved knowledge of how genetics influence the effects of drugs have led to rapid growth and a significantly increased demand for such tests.