Drug discovery company Onco-NX, which is the University of Salford’s first ever drug development spin-out, and Kanichi Research Services, a developer of a range of sensors for the healthcare market, have each received £50,000 in growth capital from the fund.

The North West Fund for Biomedical is managed by early-stage venture capital firm SPARK Impact and is part of the £185 million evergreen fund provided jointly by the European Investment Bank and European Regional Development Fund, to supply debt and equity funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the North West.

Onco-NX’s business focuses on drug discovery and development in the field of oncology. The fund’s investment will enable Onco-NX to begin to assess its commercial opportunities in more depth and continue to gather data on its lead compounds.

Pawel Zolnierczyk, intellectual property manager at the University of Salford and commercial support for Onco-NX, comments, ‘The Onco-NX team has worked very hard to make this a reality and we are looking forward to continuing to develop products in what is a very important and hopefully valuable market.’

Founded in 2008, Kanichi develops electrochemical sensors for the point of care healthcare market. There are a number of disease states that result in chemical or biomarkers being present in breath and Kanichi’s technology allows rapid detection and measurement of these markers with a view to aiding diagnosis.

Kanichi will use the investment to increase headcount, particularly in sales and business development. Part of the investment will be used to continue to prosecute its existing patent portfolio, and file new patents to further protect the IP being developed by Kanichi.

Kanichi founder Professor David Walton comments, ‘This [investment] will allow us to grow our team, delivering on existing commercial projects, and develop and patent our in house diagnostic products.’

The North West Fund for Biomedical is accessible to a broad range of companies including those developing pharmaceuticals; new diagnostics and medical devices, and those working in the fields of clinical research, contract manufacturing and analytical services. It is open to the biomedical companies based in, or prepared to relocate, to the North West of England.