Biofusion invest

University IP commercialisation company Biofusion has made an additional investment of £265,000 Asterion, a portfolio company from Biofusion's University of Sheffield agreement.

Asterion is developing a range of novel therapeutic proteins that will improve the current treatment options for patients with chronic diseases. This new investment brings Biofusion's investment to £550,000 in this company. Using its novel, patented ProFuse therapeutic platform, Asterion is generating and developing long-acting biopharmaceutical products that can be administered at a lower dose, less frequently and with fewer side effects than existing marketed drugs.

The company already has an agreement with the French pharma company Ipsen to use its platform in the development of a new Human Growth Hormone product. Results to date have been very promising and Asterion anticipates that the product will enter Phase 1 trials within the next 12 to 18 months.

Biofusion's investment in Asterion will be used to accelerate the use of the ProFuse platform on a number of Asterion developed and owned products and to further extend the effectiveness of ProFuse. Following the investment, Biofusion now owns a 38% shareholding in Asterion.

David Baynes, chief executive officer, of Biofusion, said: "We are very pleased to be investing additional money into one of our most exciting portfolio companies. Asterion has the potential to be of significant value to its shareholders if the ProFuseTM platform continues to show the quality of results it has to date."

Raymond Barlow, chief executive officer of Asterion, said: "We welcome this funding from Biofusion, which we will use to invest in some of our leading-edge development programmes to further demonstrate the broad utility of our technologies."