Tozaro Secures £6 Million to Reduce Gene Therapy Manufacturing Costs

Tozaro, a Bedfordshire-based developer of Smart Polymer technology for cell and gene therapy manufacturing, has secured £6 million in new funding to accelerate commercial partnerships and broaden access to gene therapies. The funding round was led by Mercia Ventures through the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II and Mercia's own funds, with participation from existing investors.

The latest investment brings the company's total funding to £23.7 million since its inception. Mercia first backed the business in 2015 when it operated under its former name, MIP Discovery. Mercia contributed £1.3 million through a mix of direct and fund investments and now holds an 11.9% fully diluted stake in the company.

Gene therapies have emerged as transformative treatments for certain cancers and genetic diseases, but their adoption remains constrained by high production costs. CAR-T therapies can cost more than £370,000 per patient, while some gene therapies for rare diseases exceed £1 million per treatment. In cancer care, new CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T-cell) therapies have proven highly effective in treating leukaemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Other gene therapies enable rare genetic diseases to be treated for the first time, including some forms of childhood blindness and neurodegenerative conditions such as Huntington's disease.

Tozaro's Smart Polymer platform is designed to reduce these costs by improving the manufacturing efficiency of viral vectors used to deliver modified genes into cells. Gene therapies use cells which are genetically altered using a viral vector, a safe way to deliver modified genes into cells. The Smart Polymer platform offers a more cost-effective way to manufacture viral vectors.

The company's technology combines molecular modelling and machine learning and has already undergone testing by manufacturing companies. Founded in 2015, Tozaro is a biotech company leveraging molecular modelling and machine learning to design and develop stable and cost-effective polymers that bind to gene therapy vectors specifically and selectively. The Smart Polymer platform utilizes more than 500 chemical groups to develop specific binding compounds, compared to traditional technologies using proteins and peptides, which use approximately 20 amino acids.

The technology is currently being developed for use in the manufacture of lentiviral vectors for the CAR-T treatment, and for AAV (adeno-associated virus) vectors used in other gene therapies. Discussions are underway with global manufacturers as the company seeks to scale commercial adoption. Tozaro, which is based in Sharnbrook, is in talks with manufacturers.

The broader cell and gene therapy market currently includes more than 70 approved products, with over 3,400 in development. Valued at more than $10 billion today, the sector is forecast to surpass $100 billion by 2034. Tozaro aims to position its Smart Polymer platform as a key enabler of more cost-effective production in this rapidly expanding market.

The CEO stated that Tozaro is leading the way in using high-value polymers to transform production of some of the world's most innovative but costly medicines, and the technology is attracting global interest. By improving manufacturing yields and quality while reducing costs, the company can remove the barriers and enable more patients to access these life-changing cell therapies.

The CEO at Mercia Asset Management noted that the growth of this exciting new generation of biological therapeutics is being held back by the extreme cost of production. Tozaro is developing an approach that will significantly reduce this cost, without shouldering the risk of clinical development of the therapeutic itself. The company has witnessed significant commercial progress made over the past year, moving from platform development into meaningful engagement with downstream processing partners and potential customers.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund II was established to support the kind of innovation that helps businesses stand out, become market leaders and deliver better solutions to those who need them most. The purpose of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II is to drive sustainable economic growth by supporting innovation and creating local opportunity for new and growing businesses across the Midlands. The fund will increase the supply and diversity of early-stage finance for smaller businesses in the Midlands, providing funds to firms that might otherwise not receive investment and help to break down barriers in access to finance.