'Rapidly evolving' biotech company to create 10 jobs at York Science Park

Biotech company Aptamer Group Ltd is expanding its team after raising $2.2m (c.£1.68m) in Series A funding.

The York Science Park-based firm will use the seven-figure boost, secured from overseas investors, to create 10 jobs across its technical, sales and administration teams.

Aptamer Group specialises in the identification, development and characterisation of nucleic acid ‘aptamers’, synthetic alternatives to antibodies. The new investment will support its aptamer development programme.

The funding round was supported by Meneldor, the Netherlands-based biopharmaceutical investment business founded by Dutch entrepreneurs Frans van Dalen and Paul Lelieveld.

Frans is a founding partner at Synthon Holdings. Paul, a serial investor, has backed a number of early-stage life-science companies including Belgian biopharma company Ablynx, which recently sold to French multinational Sanofi for $4.8bn.

CEO Dr Arron Tolley, who founded Aptamer Group in 2008 alongside chief technical officer Dr David Bunka, said: “Aptamer technology is rapidly evolving and will have a significant effect on the life sciences market in the coming years due to our ability to rapidly discover aptamers - combined with advantages in the manufacturing process such as the stability of aptamers, the cost of manufacturing and the reproducibility of results when compared to antibodies.

“The investment will allow us to drive forward our pre-clinical discovery programmes involving the development of aptamer drug conjugates (ApDCs) which are set to become a revolutionary approach to targeted drug delivery.”

Meneldor said in a statement: “We believe that aptamer technology represents a paradigm shift in drug delivery methodology.

“We have invested in Aptamer Group Ltd due to their progressive approach and unique technology platform, which can select aptamers significantly better and faster with the superior binding properties.”

It continued: “We believe that this will lead to the development of new medicines and represents an exciting investment opportunity. We believe this company and its management team has the potential of becoming the next Ablynx.”

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