U.K.'s Redx blueprints big R&D spinoff funded by government grant

Redx Pharma, a U.K. biotech based in Liverpool, says it will use a government grant to launch a spinoff to develop new anti-viral and anti-bacterial therapies, with plans to recruit 119 employees for the new project.

Redx gained a £4.7 million ($7.5 million) Regional Growth Fund grant to back the research expansion, which will push ahead on development work on new antibiotics for MRSA and C. Diff. along with antivirals that can tackle big targets like hepatitis C and HIV.

Redx won an even bigger RGF grant earlier, which was used to fund Redx Oncology, a spinoff focused on new cancer drugs. Unusual for a development-stage company, Redx has 55 staffers already and plans to have 127 by the end of next year. And it will be looking to leverage the grant money to garner more private investment capital.

"The thing that's often missed (about RGF) is that for every pound of taxpayer's money that goes in, we've had £5 or £6 in private investment," U.K. business secretary Vince Cable tells the Liverpool Daily Post.

- here's the press release
- read the story from the Liverpool Daily Post