Based in Liverpool city centre, Liverpool Chirochem Limited is a world leader in producing chemical compounds that help pharmaceutical companies accelerate drug development. Tony McDonough reports

A Liverpool business that is a world leader in helping pharmaceutical giants to accelerate their development of new drugs has secured an extra £2m investment.

Liverpool Chirochem Limited (LCC) was founded in 2014. It produces high purity chemical compounds which form the building blocks for the research and development of new drugs. Its leading product, 3D Chiral Scaffolds, is used all over the world.

Now it has secured a £2m investment via Maven Equity Finance, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) and managed by Maven Capital Partners. The NPIF – Maven Equity Fund invested £1m, alongside the £1m from the Government’s Future Fund.

Maven Equity Finance originally invested £500,000 in 2018 to support the company through its ‘proof of concept’ phase and establish operations in the UK and China, as well as grow its initial team to 12 employees.

LCC has also previously received equity funding from Deepbridge Capital and Praetura Ventures, totalling around £6m since 2015. The latest cash injection will allow the business to rapidly scale up and expand its production capacity to service its growing customer base.

Since 2014, LCC has developed products which provide pharmaceutical companies innovative processes for the research and development of new drugs. Its higher quality 3D compounds enable their customers to increase success probability, reduce trial costs and time and accelerate revenue generation.

Backed by a highly skilled, specialist management team, chief executive Paul Colbon, a founding member of LCC, previously worked with Redx Pharma and AstraZeneca.

Chairman and director, Malcolm Stewart, has over 20 years industrial experience in speciality chemicals and advanced materials with ICI, Zeneca and Avecia.

Mr Colbon said: “2020 was an outstanding year for LCC despite the challenges and continuing disruption of COVID-19. LCC’s stock of unique, diverse and high purity chemical compounds are expanding month on month.

“Securing these additional funds will enable the team to accelerate investment in capital equipment, continuing the scale up of our production capability, enabling LCC to take advantage of the new and growing customer opportunities.”

NPIF is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.

Simon Robb, portfolio manager at Maven, added: “LCC is a global innovator creating specialist products that enable drug discovery and we’re delighted to continue to support such a pioneering company operating in a vital sector of the science technology space.

“Today’s transaction demonstrates our belief in how far the business has come and the future growth it can achieve. We look forward to working with Paul and the team as they drive the business forward.”