BioAscent Discovery secures £1.6 million in funding for growth

Provider of integrated drug discovery services, BioAscent Discovery, has secured funding worth £1.6 million from Maven Capital Partners, which it will use for growth through its offering of integrated drug discovery and compound management services.

Additionally, the company will use the investment to grow its Compound Cloud library of lead-like pharma compounds from its facility at BioCity, Scotland. This offering of compound management and integrated drug discovery services from the single facility is expected to drive the company’s growth as it is a unique position in the sector.

“BioAscent offers enviable, world-class expertise in the key drug discovery disciplines of biosciences and medicinal chemistry to the increasing number of companies that are outsourcing their drug discovery,” explained Paul Smith, CEO at BioAscent. “Smaller companies want to avoid building a costly drug discovery capability, while larger pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies want the increased cost-effectiveness, flexibility and efficiency compared to developing in-house infrastructure and research staff. With our experienced teams, established compound management and screening facilities, and our on-site Compound Cloud library, we can work with clients right from the earliest stages of the drug discovery process, and this gives us a stand-out advantage over other providers.”

“BioAscent, with its highly regarded team and impressive facility is ideally placed to capitalise on the increasing demand within the market for high quality drug discovery services,” added David Milroy, investment director at Maven. “Maven’s investment will be used to expand BioAscent’s service offering and critically hire additional leading scientists and I very much looking forward to working with Paul’s team and with BioCity to scale the business.”

“This is a major milestone in the development of BioAscent, with the investment from Maven validating the successful development of the business over recent years,” said Glenn Crocker, CEO at BioCity Group. “I am very pleased BioCity remains a major shareholder in the company and look forward to continuing to work with Maven and the management team to grow the business further.”