Funds boost for Edinburgh biotechnology firm Ingenza

● Undertaking key partnership with university to accelerate therapeutic protein production

An Edinburgh-based biotechnology business has received a five-figure funding injection to boost production of therapeutic proteins that are capable of treating a range of conditions, including vision loss.

The investment of about £87,000 in Ingenza has been made through the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s “impact accelerator competition”.

The capital biotech firm is working in partnership with the University of Edinburgh to develop a scalable production platform to manufacture therapeutic proteins – the world’s most expensive category of pharmaceuticals.

Therapeutic proteins are engineered in the laboratory for pharmaceutical use, with insulin being the first to be introduced to treat diabetes in the 1920s. The market for such proteins is now estimated to be worth some $300 billion (£215bn), a third of which is made up of glycoproteins.

Ian Fotheringham, managing director of Ingenza, said: “Ingenza is a world leader in the application of industrial biotechnology and synthetic biology. Our growth and success as a pioneering business in Scotland has been supported by the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre, which has now invested more than £1.3 million in our collaborative work with higher education institutes in Scotland.

“This support has helped us to progress research that will ultimately benefit society, academia and business in Scotland, the UK and across the world.”

Ian Archer, technical director at the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre, added: “IBIOIC exists to provide a focal point that connects academic expertise with industrial capabilities in the area – synthetic biology tools are being developed by Scottish higher education institutes (HEIS) across a wide range of organisms such as bacteria, yeast, fungi, plants and animals which could be translated into supporting human health, crop and livestock development.

“We’re proud that our impact accelerator competition is supporting this collaborative project to commercialise these much-needed therapeutic proteins.”

The impact accelerator competition is designed to support collaborative projects that address a defined market need or commercial opportunity through the application of biotechnology, with a success rate close to 50 per cent.

Projects are led by an industrial partner, which collaborates with at least one partnering Scottish HEI. Wood Group has secured a framework agreement to provide technical assistance for a project to build a new nuclear power station in the UK. The Aberdeen-headquartered firm is supporting General Nuclear System, a joint venture between China General Nuclear Power Corporation and EDF Energy, as it seeks preliminary regulatory assessment of a reactor proposed for Bradwell in Essex. A similar HPR1000 reactor is pictured above under construction in China.