Council helps secure £3m life sciences boost

A £3M pot of cash has been raised to help develop a fungal infection medicine at Alderley Park.

The money is the result of collaboration between Cheshire East Council, Cheshire and Warrington Enterprise Partnership, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Manchester Science Partnerships.

It will fund clinical trials on patients and drug development by Blueberry Therapeutics, based at the park, concentrating on developing treatment for fungal nail infection and associated athlete’s foot.

The fund is managed by Catapult Ventures.

The market for fungal treatments is worth more than £2bn annually and Blueberry’s innovative treatment, which uses nanotechnology to create ‘nanomedicines’, has the promise of being a more effective and ‘bettertolerated’ therapy than existing products in the market.

Cheshire East Councillor Peter Groves, Life Science Fund board member, said: “We were attracted to Blueberry by the exceptional experience of its management team and its compelling preclinical data for this well -differentiated and novel treatment. We look forward to working together with Blueberry’s board and co-investors to help the company fulfil its ambition.

“This is the third investment the fund has made to date and I am delighted to see the fund helping more businesses based at Alderley Park, which is the largest life sciences campus of its kind in the UK.”