CN Bio raises $21 million to scale up organ-on-a-chip technology
The funding has been secured from several new investors, including $10 million from Bayland Capital, and $5.5 million from founding shareholder CN Innovations.
With 80% of clinical failures attributed to efficacy and toxicity issues, often derived from the poor predictiveness of animal and 2D cell culture models, the industry demand for OOC solutions in these areas is intensifying.
In fact, the global OOC market is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 30.94%.
According to the Cambridge-based biotech, it is capitalising on this demand by delivering an ‘ambitious expansion strategy’ to meet demand for its PhysioMimix OOC technology.
“We are seeing pivotal growth across our industry, whereby drug developers are increasingly recognising the potential of OOC technology to augment, supplement and optimize their workflows,” said Dr Paul Brooks, CEO of CN Bio.
“We have strategically positioned ourselves accordingly to respond to the market needs and are proud to have received recognition from our major shareholder, CN Innovations, and new institutional investors such as Bayland Capital, to drive this vision forward.
“The investment is a testament to our team’s hard work and dedication to best supporting our customers to bring drugs to patients more quickly, more cost-effectively, and through less animal experimentation.”
With this latest fundraising, the company is also ‘well-positioned’ to continue its expansion in key markets including toxicology, drug pharmacology and metabolic diseases.
The news follows a series of appointments made by CN Bio earlier this year, to expand the company’s leadership team in the UK and US, new product launches, and strategic industry collaborations.
In addition, earlier this year CN Bio teamed up with Altis Biosystems to combine in vitro ‘organ-on-a-chip’ systems – Altis’ RepliGut Planar-Jejunum model and CN Bio’s PhysioMimix liver on a chip.
The integration of these technologies forms a dual gut/liver model which aims to improve the accuracy of in vitro drug testing, particularly for oral drug administration.
“OOC technology is an exciting market with compelling opportunity for growth. CN Bio has taken key steps to build a team with extensive industry expertise and robust networks across the industry, with a longstanding track record of success,” said Yuexing Su, founding partner at Bayland Capital commented.
Charles Chong, managing director at CN Innovations, also said he was ‘encouraged’ by the company’s ongoing success and achievements, particularly during a challenging financial landscape.
“In this time, key milestones have been met, not just for the company, but also the wider industry – including CN Bio providing critical human-relevant compound efficacy data to support the FDA’s approval for Inipharm’s Phase 1 clinical trial for metabolic liver disease,” he added.
“We are pleased to be supporting CN Bio again as it looks ahead and strengthens its future growth plans, of which, expanding its product portfolio in markets that hold huge impact for the industry, such as metabolic disease modelling and toxicology, will be key.”
