Oxford Investment Opportunity Network

The following five companies are seeking investment via the Network as a result of the 26 February OION investment meeting at the SAID Business School, Oxford. The descriptions available summarise the investment proposal made by the company. The information is provided by the company and has not been vetted in any way by OION.

If you are interested in receiving further information on any of the companies then please contact us.

Company A has developed a hands-free portable vein imaging device that aids doctors and nurses in carrying out cannulations - the insertion of a catheter into a peripheral venil The device will reduce the mumber of unsuccessful cannulations and in so doing will reduce:

- infection risks to both patients and medical staff

- cost and time of treatment: and

- patient discomfort

A PCT patent application has been filed and a first prototype has been built and evaluations planned with anaesthetitst in two major hospitals.

Company A is seeking up to £250k to fund the product through a final design and development phase and through initial marketing studies. Further funding will then be raised to take the product through the manufacturing process and launch planned in twelve months time.

Company B has developed an innovative patented way of treating cartilage injury and osteoarthritis. It is able to turn stem cells into cartilage by stimulating them with magnetic nanoparticles. This will revolutionise the way that joint injuries are treted by replacing highly invasive joint replacement surgery with a day-patient procedure.

Company B has already generated proof-of-concept data in a mouse model and is seeking £725k to finance a 12-month efficacy study in goat knees, prior to human trials.

Key features:

-In the USA insurance providers pay $41 billion annually to treat jiont deterioration.

-Patents to the technology have been granted in three territories and are being progressed worldwide.

-Company B's board incluldes senior level management experience from big pharma, biotech, start-up and development stage businesses.

-Company B's science comes from two internationally renowned scientists.

- Whilst focusing initially on knee cartilage, the technology has a wide range of follow-on opportunities including application of the cartilagae repair product to other joints such as arhritis of the finers for which there is currently no effective treatment.

Market: Over 90% of drugs that reach clinical trials fail to reach the market due to side-effects or insufficient therapeutic benefits. There is an urgent need to provide better tests and instruments earlier in discovery to improve drug selection and reduce the risk of failure.

Problem: There is inadequate use of human tissue in drug discovery and the necessary laboratory instruments are slow, manual and require highly skilled operators.

Solution: Fresh human tissue is the best model of drug safety and efficacy. Company C has developed a network to ethically access such tissues and is the only human tissue Contract Research Organisation (CRO) to be accredited as a Good Laboratory Practice (GLP). Company C's new instrument, has deskilled and automated many types of tissue experiments making them simple and cost-effective.

Progress: Company C's division is generating healthy service revenues and has 3 of the top 5 pharma companies as clients. Company C’s Instrument Division has just signed a worldwide distribution agreement for it's product. Company C requires investment to expand its range of services and to support the distribution agreement.

Leadership: Company C has an experienced management and Board. The Board consists of entrepreneurs who have successfully grown and exited life science companies.

The Business: Company D is a new Security Systems Company specialising in the latest IP CCTV Technology.

The Product: Company D's system is an event-driven full IP (Internet Protocol) system and utilises the latest Megapixel cameras providing ultra clear images that are very easy to recall. Company D's system will be supplied to the trade as a complete ‘end to end’ ‘plug and play’ IP CCTV system, enabling ease of installation.

The Market: The market for CCTV in the UK is currently worth £560m per annum. Analysts forecast that the market will be worth in excess of £1bn per annum by 2012 The current world wide market has been bogged down with old analogue/DVR technologies and is on the threshold of embracing new IP technology, using full digital, megapixel cameras. The security industry is full of IT illiterate people who are afraid/unable to embrace the new technology due to their limited knowledge of IT in general. Company D's system will enable these companies to make the transition successfully and easily.

Potential of Business: By using innovative PR and Marketing, Company D will create a family of ‘Authorised, approved re-sellers’ throughout the UK. Once the UK model is established then Europe and the rest of the world can be attacked. The objective is for the Company D's product name to be synonymous with quality, technologically advanced security systems. Company D will become a market leader in a fragmented and largely uneducated industry.
Company D requires a total investment of £780,000 of which £230,000 has already been agreed in principle by Lloyds TSB. Therefore we are seeking the remaining £550,000.  

Company E has developed a personalized anti-cancer vaccine service. The initial Phase IIIa clinical trial of its lead product showed that it more than halved the death rate in Stage II colon cancer patients at 5 years from 35% to 15%. These results were published in the Lancet in 2000. Since then, manufacturing of Compnay E's product has been improved. Now that sterility of its mixture of re-injected cancer cells and BCG vaccine is assured, initial sales and a pivotal US trial can start.

Switzerland has authorized the sale of Company E's product on a named patient basis and Company E therefore intends to start sales in mid-2008 using its Dutch manufacturing site. Initial profitability is expected within 2 years. Meanwhile, the FDA has granted a Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) for Company E's product and the pivotal US Phase IIIb trial is due to start in 2008.
The colon cancer drug market was worth over £1.6 billion in 2007 but no drug has specific FDA approval to treat the Stage II disease. There are a quarter of a million people who develop colon cancer each year in the Western World and 40% of these have the Stage II disease. Company E needs £17 million to complete its business plan for it's product and the rest of its R&D pipeline.