£3m investment in Coleraine companies will improve outcomes for cancer and metabolic disease patients

StimOxyGen and Dia Beta Labs, two life and health science spin-out companies from Ulster University, have each raised £1.5m of public and private funding to assist with their growth plans.

These investment rounds have been supported and leveraged by Co-Fund III, one of three funds that make up Invest NI’s Access to Finance portfolio.

The new round of Access to Finance funding, with a potential total investment of more than £250m, was launched by Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald in May.

The Minister said: “The Access to Finance funding is to assist our SMEs (small and medium sized enterprise), start-ups and entrepreneurs and help address the private equity funding gap in the north.

“It is excellent to see that some of our innovative businesses are already benefitting from this fund, and in the area of Life and Health sciences, one of my Department’s priority sectors.

"By private and public sector working together, we are helping to enable businesses to not only contribute to our economic development, but importantly to advance medical breakthroughs.”

StimOxyGen is tackling the challenge of tumour hypoxia, where a lack of oxygen in solid tumours limits the effectiveness of standard cancer treatments such as radiotherapy.

Dia Beta Labs is tackling the metabolic disease epidemic through development of disease-modifying peptides which provide higher quality, more sustainable weight loss than current options in obesity.

Sian Farrell, Chief Executive of StimOxyGen said: “This investment will provide essential funding to progress our novel oxygen-generating nanoparticle (SGEN-33) towards first-in-human trials.

"Specifically, it enables completion of preclinical toxicology, manufacturing scale-up, and regulatory interactions in preparation for clinical evaluation. It also helps us to grow the team as we transition from a preclinical towards a clinical-stage company.

"This is a transformative step for our company and for patients with aggressive cancers such as pancreatic cancer, where treatment options remain limited.”

Ryan Lafferty, Chief Executive of Dia Beta Labs Ltd said: “As an R&D-stage biotech, accessing finance at this stage can be a challenge. This investment allows us to progress the manufacturing and late-stage preclinical toxicology of our lead program, bringing us significantly closer to first-in-human trials for this potentially transformative medicine.”