Parkure, a spin-out from Edinburgh developing a treatment for Parkinson’s disease, has raised £150,000 ($226,200) in a hybrid round of crowdfunding and government backing.
Half of the funding came via a round held on crowdfunding platform ShareIn, £25,000 short of its target. This was increased to £150,000 when the company receive a Smart Scotland grant from the Scottish Government at the turn of the year.
Parkure is using genetically engineered fruit flies with Parkinson’s to develop new drugs. The firm will be using a drug repurposing method, and testing drugs which have already been cleared as safe for humans to use. The method is cheap and efficient, and the company will now move on to testing as many drugs as possible before co-developing potential candidates with pharmaceutical firms.
Lysimachos Zografos, CEO at Parkure, said: “Crowdfunding can provide an excellent way to bridge the funding gap for early stage companies. We were the first who managed to bootstrap a biotechnology company using it and this was partly made possible by the invaluable help, guidance and mentoring we received from the Centre for Integrative Physiology and Edinburgh Research and Innovation’s company formation team. We have a tough challenge ahead but now we are even more driven, committed and energised because all of those who supported us.”
