Pharmaceutical outfit Glide Pharma has raised £2.3 million. The funding involved existing shareholders, such as Oxford Technology 4 VCT, as well as new investors including Oxford Capital Partners.

Pharmaceutical outfit Glide Pharma has raised £2.3 million. The funding involved existing shareholders, such as Oxford Technology 4 VCT, as well as new investors including Oxford Capital Partners.

Located at Milton Park, Oxfordshire, Glide has developed a drug delivery system that injects drugs in solid dosage form into the skin without using a needle. Glide has previously completed two funding rounds of £500,000 and £2.1 million.

Glide is developing its own range of branded drug products and part of the funding will be used to take the company’s first new drug product, GP02, into clinical trials in autumn 2007.

Under a separate agreement, the company has entered into an exclusive licence and distribution deal with Paladin Labs, a Canadian pharmaceutical company, for Glide’s products in Canada.

Charles Potter, founder and chief executive officer of Glide, comments: ‘We are delighted to have secured the funding we need to take our first Glide Pharma drug product through clinical trials. We are also excited to be partnering with Paladin, a dynamic and creative company with a track record of successfully launching innovative pharmaceutical products in Canada.’

Glide will also use the new funding to initiate its own internal development programme and to continue developing its commercial manufacturing process. Potter adds that there ‘is strong interest in new delivery systems for both vaccines and biologics that are self-injected at home, such as insulin’.