Domainex Announces Investment Round to Progress its TBK1/IKKe and Epigenetic Programmes

Domainex Ltd., a UK-based drug discovery company, has announced an investment round to raise £1.5m of capital. This round had a successful first close in December 2012, with investments made by Longbow Capital, Bury Fitzwilliam-Lay and Partners and University College London Business (UCLB), who together represent the interests of more than half of Domainex’s current shareholders.

Longbow Capital is leading the round and will now seek to raise the remaining investment before a second close at end of April. Edward Beckett, Managing Partner at Longbow, commented “We are very pleased with the progress Domainex has made on its drug development pipeline and on its service business. The further investment will help to develop a range of drug compounds that can address some of the most acute diseases. This has already generated interest from many leading pharmaceutical companies and is expected to drive growth in Domainex’s value for its shareholders”.
The investment will be used to advance Domainex’s kinase based drug development programmes against TBK1/IKKe and epigenetics targets. Edward Littler CEO of Domainex said ‘Over the last year Domainex’s programmes targeting TBK1/IKKe have made great strides, showing utility in cancer, and also potential in many inflammatory diseases. We are now approaching the selection of a clinical candidate and some of the investment will be used to ensure we move this programme forward to an out-licensing deal with a pharma partner.’ He added: “The majority of the investment will be used to progress our epigenetics portfolio targeting lysine methyltransferases. With the increased strength of the service business and the additional investment, Domainex’s resources should be sufficient to deliver a number of exciting clinical drug candidates that larger pharmaceutical companies are interested in.

Keith Powell Chairman of Domainex said “It is exciting to see Domainex moving the internal drug development programmes forward to create value while at the same time building and strengthening its effective and impressive drug discovery technology partnering business. Recently Domainex has obtained new contracts to support UK universities in translational research and has a number of future opportunities to expand its capabilities further during 2013.”