Aberdeen University spin-out Elasmogen has announced the securing of follow-on equity investment from Deepbridge Capital totalling £2 million, taking the company’s total investment in Elasmogen to £3.15 million.

The biopharmaceutical company revealed that the funding will be used to accelerate the development of the company’s next generation biologics for “site-specific delivery and treatment of diseases refractory to existing drug therapies.”

Elasmogen’s proprietary, humanised versions of drugs – also known as SoloMER biologics – are originally based on a protein found in nature called a VNAR. VNARs are small, antibody-like proteins and key components of a shark’s immune system.

The soloMERs’ small size, highly stable nature and simple structure makes them “ideal for delivering more effective treatments for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.”

The company is “delighted” that Deepbridge has continued to support its future development, according to chief executive officer Caroline Barelle.

She continued, “Our pre-clinical data sets are becoming more and more compelling. This data is turning our original hypotheses about the unique selling points of our soloMERs into scientific reality. In fact, we now have results that show our drugs, at least in the laboratory, are ten times more potent than existing therapies.”

The Scottish company currently has drug libraries of more than 100 billion unique soloMERs, from which new drug leads can be isolated. It is also currently progressing its own internal pipeline of novel drugs as well as embarking on a growing number of successful commercial partnerships.