After a major fundraising drive, the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Life Sciences Fund has managed to raise a huge £3m which will go toward developing a medicine to treat fungal infections at Alderley Park. The fund is borne out of a collaboration of local authorities, Cheshire East Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and champions of innovation â Warrington Enterprise Partnership and Manchester Science Partnerships.
Alderley Park currently stands as the UKâs largest life science campus of its kind and boasts one of most vibrant pharmaceutical communities, currently housing major firms including AstraZeneca, the BioHub and, most recently, Redx Pharma.
The money raised by the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Life Sciences Fund will help fund clinical trials on patients as well as providing financial support for drug development being undertaken by Blueberry Therapeutics, one of the pharmaceutical businesses based at Alderley Park. The multimillion pound investment is hoped to support the progress of its pioneering treatment for onychomycosis (common fungal nail infection) and athleteâs foot.
Not does Blueberry Therapeutics hope to create a more effective and better-tolerated treatment than those currently available, but the firm is also looking to tap into the lucrative fungal treatment market which is currently achieves annual profits of more than £2bn. In order to speed up the pace at which the product can be marketed, the company is currently in talks with the US FDA with a view to easing the approval and regulation process.
John Ridden, CEO of Blueberry Therapeutics, said he was delighted to have been selected to receive financial support by the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Life Sciences Fund, adding that the funding would drastically speed up the development and trial stages of treatments â allowing Blueberry Therapeutics to begins phase three trials as early as 2017.
The firm was selected on the basis what Peter Groves, Councillor for Cheshire East Council, and the described as the exceptional experience of its management team as well as the compelling nature of data already collated on the treatment. On such commendation, it can surely only be a matter of time before Blueberry Therapeutics has a breakthrough.
