Oxford drug delivery spinout Evox Therapeutics collected funding from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in its bid to engineer exosome delivery vessels for a range of drugs.
Evox Therapeutics, a UK-based drug delivery spinout of University of Oxford, received an undisclosed amount of funding today from philanthropic organisation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Founded in 2016, Evox Therapeutics engineers drug delivery exosomes intended to transfer therapeutics beyond impermeable biological defences such as the blood-brain barrier. Exosomes are cellular sacs that naturally reside in eukaryotic fluids including bloods and urine to perform functions including waste management.
Evox hopes to use the exosomes to deliver nucleic acid, protein and other small molecule-based drugs for purposes including intracellular biologics, central nervous system therapeutics and RNA-based drugs.
The spinout’s lead project is currently undergoing optimisation to combat Niemann-Pick disease type C, a form of lipid storage disorder.
The capital will be used to further Evox’s approach, which builds on research conducted by Matthew Wood, professor of neuroscience at Oxford, and Samir El Andaloussi, a research fellow at Oxford and part-time assistant professor at Karolinska Institute.
University of Oxford and its university venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) backed Evox in September 2018 as part of a $45.4m series B round led by Redmile Group which featured GV, one of diversified conglomerate Alphabet’s investment units.
Panacea Healthcare Ventures, Borealis Ventures, Cowen Healthcare Investments and angel investors also participated in the round, which came after OSI had supplied Evox with $14.5m of series A capital in 2016.