Drug delivery spinout gains £2.5M investment

A spinout company from the University of Warwick has gained £2.5 million of investment.

The investment group Mercia Technologies invested the funds into Medherant for its transdermal drug delivery patch technology.

Medherant’s TEPI Patch can deliver higher doses of drugs through the skin potentially offering fewer side effects, improved compliance and allowing drugs to be delivered that are unsuitable administration.

The funding will be used to support Medherant as it moves into clinical development and commercialises its ibuprofen TEPI Patch and begins developing its second product.

Mercia first invested in Medherant back in June 2015. Since then Medherant has secured a license agreement with Bostik SA to use its pressure sensitive adhesive material in the development of its TEPI Patch.

Nigel Davis, CEO of Medherant, said: “We are grateful to have the continued financial support of Mercia and pleased to be working closely with the team as we move into the next exciting phase of Medherant’s development. Our TEPI Patch technology is generating global interest and we are now working with several leading pharmaceutical companies as we develop our own product pipeline.”

Mark Payton, chief executive officer at Mercia, said: “Medherant’s highly versatile platform is compatible with a wide range of drugs, enabling a transdermal route to market for drugs not currently suitable for formulation with existing delivery technologies. The company’s first product, Ibuprofen TEPI Patch, will be manufactured at AdhexPharma in France for clinical trials in early 2018. Led by Dr Nicola Broughton, Investment Director and Head of Universities at Mercia, we have been working with the founders since inception, initially through our managed funds and are now scaling the business with a further direct investment. This has increased our equity holding in what potentially may become a very valuable business.”