Pneumagen Ltd, a spin-off company of University of St Andrews has been awarded £4 million investment from Thairm Bio (£3M) and the Scottish Investment Bank (£1M). This will allow the Fife company to develop tests of Neumifil, an anti-coronavirus nasal spray on patients in the coming year in a wider effort to prevent and treat COVID-19.
As previously reported by QV, Pneumagen’s focus is treating infectious disease and developing cancer treatments by targeting the carbohydrate component in the lung’s cell surface.
Pneumagen Chief Executive, Douglas Thomson said, “I am delighted that Thairm has chosen to support our ambitious development programme to test the efficacy of Neumifil against Covid-19 in humans, planned in the first half of 2021.”
Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife queried why the Scottish Government was assisting Pneumagen with the human trials. since, although the company aims to manufacture in Scotland, it cannot do so currently because Scotland does not have the capacity,
In response, Ivan McKee, Minister for Trade, Investment, and Innovation said, “I would be delighted to help the business that he mentioned to support its efforts to manufacture the product in Scotland. Such products are much needed, as we move forward in the fight against Covid-19.”
He added, “The NMIS has worked extensively with hundreds of businesses that have innovative solutions that we want to move forward. Through the life sciences Scotland industry leadership group and others, I have engaged with the life sciences sector in looking for opportunities to support Scottish businesses in the very important areas of testing, vaccine and cure.”
