Drug company Biotica enters administration

A drug discovery company based in Cambridge has entered administration due to cashflow problems.

Biotica Technology is a Cambridge University spin-out based in the city's Chesterford Research Park. The firm had been working on polyketides, which are drug-like molecules that are produced by micro-organisms in soil. The business's aim had been to find new treatments for deadly diseases using the polyketides.

Joint administrators Chris McKay and Andrew McTear of McTear Williams & Wood were appointed this week to work with the firm's directors. The plan is either to restructure and save the company or to sell it.

Mr McKay told Cambridge News: “We became involved late last year after the company hit cashflow problems resulting from a licensing dispute with a drug development partner. Eight people were made redundant in November and now only three are left.”

The business was first established in 1996 through the research two professors from Cambridge University undertook. It grew into a successful discovery and development company, and in October 2012 announced a partnership with California firm Pelos Pharmaceuticals to develop therapeutics for aging-related diseases.

Administrators remain confident that there could be a positive future for the company, especially given its promising drug candidate, BC556, which is a potent inhibitor of hepatitis C that has received significant interest from a number of parties who are keen to develop it further.

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