According to the company, the investment marks a signigicant change, as it refocuses on improving the downstream processing of cell and gene therapies.
Stephane Argivier, CEO of MIP Discovery, said: “Securing funding for a novel reagents company in today’s investment landscape demonstrates clear confidence in MIP Discovery’s technology and renewed commercial strategy.
"Our proprietary modeling approach to developing synthetic antibody alternatives has already been successful for diagnostic applications, and we have already seen very encouraging traction for our expertise in the cell and gene therapy space.”
In addition, the funding will be used to drive further commercialization of MIP Discovery’s novel synthetic affinity reagents within the cell and gene therapy space.
It will also bolster recruitment efforts to expand in-house cell and gene therapy expertise.
Dr Mark Payton, CEO of Mercia, commented: “The broader cell and gene therapy market is a rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar market and its next stage of evolution is to focus down on technologies that reduce the cost of production and purification to ensure this therapeutic benefit is available for the many.
"Using MIPs’ sophisticated and highly scalable synthetic chemistry approach means they are well positioned to benefit from this tremendous high growth opportunity.”
The biotech claims its non-biological affinity reagents support a new process within viral vector characterization, purification, safety, and QC processes, such as the detection and removal of impurities.
Its synthetic antibody alternatives offer a ‘fresh approach’ to downstream processing for cell and gene therapy developers, MIP Discovery added.
Backed by ‘proven technology’ and the ‘confidence of its investors’, the company is striving to increase the affordability of cell and gene therapies, enabling the delivery of these life-saving treatments on a global scale, added Mike Evans, chair of MIP Discovery.
Existing investor Calculus Capital also participated in the round, along with Angel investors.