Alida Capital International completes financing into NuCana BioMed
Alida Capital International Completes Financing into NuCana BioMed EDINBURGH (18th December 2009); Alida Capital International Ltd (“Alida”) today announced it had completed an equity financing into Edinburgh based biopharmaceutical company NuCana BioMed (“NuCana”). The Scottish Enterprise Scottish Co-Investment Fund participated in the round.
Hugh Griffith, Alida’s Chief Executive stated: “We are delighted to have completed our first investment with Scottish Enterprise’s Scottish Co-Investment Fund. NuCana offers a very attractive investment opportunity and the product portfolio has the potential to make a very real difference to the treatment of people with cancer.”
This new financing will allow NuCana to complete the core non clinical and manufacturing programmes and, importantly, enable the initiation of the first clinical studies. This announcement follows the recent statement from NuCana that it had exercised its exclusive option and acquired the exclusive world-wide licence to exploit the ProTide technology. ProTides are chemical moieties which have the unique capacity to enhance efficacy and reduce toxicity of certain well established cancer agents. NuCana, whilst driving the development and commercialisation of these new and exciting medicines, will continue the research collaboration with Cardiff University and Morvus Technologies Ltd.
About Alida Capital International Ltd
Established in 2009, Alida Capital International (ACI) is one of Scotland’s newest business angel syndicates. ACI members have considerable entrepreneurial, financial and management experience in the biopharmaceutical sector and offer a flexible approach to funding.
ACI’s investment criteria focuses specifically on biopharmaceutical companies where proof of relevance clinical data has been generated and a clear regulatory strategy identified. A strong IPR position is essential. Each investment opportunity is considered on an individual basis and on its fit with ACI’s strategy. About NuCana BioMed Ltd NuCana BioMed is an emerging biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialisation of innovative, rationally designed medicines that address significant unmet medical needs. The NuCana BioMed management team has a successful track record of building virtual biopharmaceutical organisations to global integrated companies.
About Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Enterprise is Scotland’s main enterprise, innovation and investment agency. Working in partnership with industry, academia and the public sector, SE aims to help make Scotland a place where business can thrive and key industries can be competitive. Its focus is to help businesses grow, encourage greater innovation and create the right conditions for companies to access property, markets and finance to increase productivity and increase Scotland’s ability to compete internationally.
The Scottish Co-investment Fund (SCF) is a £72 million equity investment fund established by Scottish Enterprise, and partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), to invest from £100,000 to £1 million in company finance deals of up to £2 million.