Stablepharma Ltd, a UK-based biotech company developing a technology platform for fridge-free vaccines, has announced the first close of its series A funding round, which raised £2m ($2.8m). Funding came from existing shareholders and investors such as Ascension Ventures and Family Offices across Canada, Australia, UK and Europe.
The ‘cold chain' is a widely reported barrier to the transportation and storing of COVID mRNA vaccines, particularly in countries with unreliable infrastructures. The WHO estimates that up to 50% of all vaccines manufactured currently lose their efficacy before they can be delivered, often as a result of ‘cold-chain’ failures.
Stablepharma will use the proceeds of the funding round to complete first in human) clinical trials with StablevaX Td (Tetanus diphtheria) with European vaccine manufacturer BB-NCIPD (BulBio), advance its COVID mRNA programme in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, scale up its GMP manufacturing and expand existing R&D facilities in Madrid, Spain.
This fundraise follows a previous seed round on the CrowdCube platform, which saw the company raise an £1.3m to commence Td vaccine animal studies. Earlier this year, it announced "very encouraging" animal data for both Td and COVID mRNA programmes. To date, more than $5m have been raised from seed to series A.
Stablepharma CEO and Executive Director, Özgür Tuncer, said: "This is an exceptionally successful first close of our Series A round which has been well supported by our existing shareholders and global family offices. We have managed to complete the round within a matter of weeks and this will be followed by a second close within the next 3-6 months. Given the focus on the Pandemic and the challenges of mRNA vaccine distribution and accessibility due to extreme cold chain requirements, we have already secured interest from several institutional investors including private equity / venture capital firms".
Nick Child, VP and co-founder of Stablepharma said: "We are delighted with the success of this round and the response from our shareholders and investors. We raised £2m in a three-week period, from start to completion and have seen an excellent valuation uplift of 40% from our 2018 CrowdCube fund raise – this is all positive news for our shareholders".