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Imprint Pharmaceuticals Ltd

Imprint Pharmaceuticals Ltd is a drug delivery company developing technology to assist the delivery of high value therapeutics. The company has worked closely with two top pharmaceutical companies to develop a simple, patented needle that can dramatically improve the delivery of difficult injections. There is an estimated £10 billion market for drugs that could be delivered more efficiently by the Imprint device.

A cornerstone of Imprint’s development strategy has been finance raised at OION meetings, in three stages, that provided essential capital to accelerate product development.

Imprint first presented to investors in 1998 when capital was needed to fund the development of a basic prototype. The £30,000 raised enabled Imprint to draw down a SMART Award from the DTI. In 1999 a further £70,000 was raised, again from OION investors, which completed the ‘proof of concept’ prototype.

Armed with a working model Imprint were able, in 2001, to complete a more substantial round through both OION members and external investors. The £400,000 was used to refine the product, develop the manufacturing process and to build the sales team.

Imprint are now commercialising their needle technology, selling to multi-national pharmaceutical companies.

OION’s business angel investors have invested a total of £400,000 over a period of 3 years. Importantly, the investors were able to provide follow on finance during times when capital markets were all but closed to start-up companies.

Dr Kevin Maynard, Director of Imprint Pharmaceuticals says:

"Without OION, we could not have achieved our objective of establishing a high growth potential company. OION provided Imprint with access to investors who were prepared to share the risk involved in developing our drug delivery technology in return for potentially high rewards"