Penningtons Manches Cooper advises on funding round for first fully automated drug discovery platform

Posted: 01/11/2019

Penningtons Manches Cooper’s corporate team has advised Arctoris Ltd, a fully automated drug discovery platform for virtual and traditional biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical corporations and academia, on its seed funding round of £3.2 million to advance its novel drug discovery offering.

From its beginnings at the University of Oxford in 2016, Arctoris has established the world’s first fully automated, robotic laboratory dedicated to drug discovery, providing global drug discovery teams with on-demand access to a broad range of cellular, molecular and biochemical assays. The company’s automated system delivers high-quality data through standardised, pre-optimised and fully validated processes, while its innovative online portal makes it easy for researchers to plan, order and track their experiments from anywhere in the world. The funding round was led by RT Partners and included angel investors Patrick Pichette (chairman of OSI) and Vishal Gulati, as well as additional industry-recognised investors and advisors including Charles Songhurst, Alexander Straub, TD Veen AS and Tanarra Capital.

Oxford based corporate partner Will Axtell led the Penningtons Manches Cooper team and was supported by senior associate Nicola Sole.

Martin-Immanuel Bittner MD DPhil, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Arctoris, commented: "This support from industry-recognised investors and advisors will enable our team to continue to develop our revolutionary approach to drug discovery, which has been specifically designed to produce data of the highest possible quality from a broad range of biochemical, molecular biology and cell biology assays. Through our platform, scientists and biotechnology entrepreneurs worldwide can make discoveries faster and more efficiently, paving the way to introducing new treatments to patients sooner."

Will Axtell commented: “It has been very rewarding to support another exciting Oxford company on its journey. With a great management team, advisors and investors Arctoris is definitely one to watch and, as its website says, “Welcome to the Future”!”

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