Latest News
Circassia Completes Multi-million Pound Fund Raising
Circassia today announced that it has completed a substantial multi-million pound fund raising to further develop its allergy vaccine techology. The funding round, which included Landsdowne Partners and Tudor Capital was led by Imperial Innovations.
Circassia was originally established by Imperial Innovations in 1998 to commercialise research on allergic rhinitis conducted by Professor Barry Kay and Professor Mark Larche of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. Its T-cell epitope technology offers the opportunity to produce a range of safe and effective allergy treatments in a substantial but poorly served market.
Allergic rhinitis and asthma together affect an estimated 30% of the population of Western industrialised countries and give rise to estimated expenditure on drugs in excess of US$12 billion globally [source: Datamonitor]. In up to 85% of cases of asthma common allergens have been implicated as the cause.
Most traditional immunotherapy approaches use the whole allergen in formulating the vaccination, which is a high-risk approach that can lead to serious side-effects. In contrast, Circassia's technology involves the selection of short synthetic peptides derived from the whole allergen. This allows for the treatment of high-prevalence allergic diseases with substantially improved safety and efficacy, addressing the underlying cause of the disease.
The investment will be used to develop the technology further, by completing phase II and preparing for phase III for the treatment of cat allergy and by initiating phase II studies for the treatment of subjects allergic to ragweed, house dust mites and grass.
Charles Swingland, Chairman of Circassia, said, "We are pleased to have completed this investment round, which enables us to accelerate the development of our technology. The investment team at Imperial Innovations have been excellent partners and have helped us bring together an exceptional syndicate smoothly and quickly."
Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, said, "Circassia has been the ideal company to invest in by means of the first funding round we have led. Its superior innovative technology and high-calibre management team presented us with the perfect opportunity to provide investors access to the exciting growth prospects inherent in the world-class research carried out at Imperial College."
25 January 2007