{"id":87127,"date":"2017-12-07T15:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=c922ebacdfaf21c5687297a6070639e1"},"modified":"2017-12-07T15:00:42","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T15:00:42","slug":"news-story-uk-bioprocessing-firm-acquired-by-ge-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=87127","title":{"rendered":"News story: UK bioprocessing firm acquired by GE Healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bioprocessing startup Puridify<\/a> has been acquired by GE Healthcare<\/a>, part of major US conglomerate General Electric.<\/p>\n

All 17 employees of Puridify \u2013 which is based at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst<\/a> \u2013 will join GE Healthcare\u2019s life sciences business. The team will remain at their current location, which will serve as a small research hub for bioprocessing.<\/p>\n

Improving bioprocessing to deliver new treatments<\/h2>\n

New possibilities are emerging to use next-generation biotherapeutics in the treatment of illnesses such as haemophilia, Parkinson\u2019s and cancer.<\/p>\n

However, the purification process for these therapeutics is extremely challenging because of their complex structures.<\/p>\n

Puridify is developing a nanofiber-based platform purification technology for biopharmaceutical production called FibroSelect. This technology should improve productivity and cost-effectiveness of process development and small-scale manufacture in a wide range of biopharmaceutical applications.<\/p>\n

The new deal with GE Healthcare will help further move Puridify\u2019s technology towards commercialisation.<\/p>\n

Grants to support research and development<\/h2>\n

Puridify has received significant research and development support from Innovate UK and the research councils over the years.<\/p>\n

It received 2 grants totalling just under \u00a33 million through the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst, with funding coming from Innovate UK, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council<\/a> (EPSRC) and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council<\/a> (BBSRC).<\/p>\n

Working with University College London<\/a> (UCL), this funding allowed Puridify to test and validate the technical feasibility of its technology for industrial applications.<\/p>\n

In addition, the company has received 3 further grants from Innovate UK worth more than \u00a3611,000, with another in the pipeline to develop its FibroSelect platform for bespoke viral vector purifications.<\/p>\n

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Apply for business innovation funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

About the company<\/h2>\n

Puridify was officially formed in 2013 as a spin-out from UCL, by Oliver Hardwick, CEO and Iwan Roberts, COO.<\/p>\n

The idea for the technology started with an EPSRC-funded engineering doctoral project in bioprocess engineering leadership, which was thought up by UCL\u2019s Professor Dan Bracewell and Science and Technology Facilities Council\u2019s<\/a> (STFC) Professor Bob Stevens. From the outset it was intended that the technology would have industrial application, leading to an initial patent filing in 2012 to support the commercial opportunity.<\/p>\n

Establishment of the company was conducted under a Royal Society of Edinburgh<\/a> Enterprise Fellowship, supported by the STFC.<\/p>\n

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Find out more about BBSRC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Find out more about EPSRC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

De-risking the investment proposition<\/h2>\n

Commenting on the support received, Dr Oliver Hardwick said:<\/p>\n

\n

Business skills training during our bioprocess leadership EPSRC-supported EngD\u2019s at UCL gave us both confidence and contacts to consider commercialising our research.<\/p>\n

Innovate UK funding represented external technical validation of the underlying technology and demonstrated we had considered the commercial exploitables and route to market. This de-risked the investment proposition for our first venture capital round, whilst providing a framework for us to collaborate with our future customer base.<\/p>\n

The collaborative approach to innovation \u2013 bringing academic partners together with a venture capital backed SME, combined with end users \u2013 has facilitated a rapid transition from academia to industry.<\/p>\n

The output of this allowed us to demonstrate a strong case for inwards investment into Puridify, and its UK-based research, through acquisition, and to facilitate the commercialisation of the significant supporting infrastructure that\u2019s needed for global supply a product for high-value manufacturing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The research councils, Innovate UK and Research England will become UK Research and Innovation on 1 April 2018. Visit UK Research and Innovation\u2019s website to find out more<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Puridify acquisition follows support from Innovate UK and research councils to develop purification technology for next-generation biotherapeutics treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}