A biotechnology firm that specialises in gene therapy has said it expects to create 11 high-value jobs in Edinburgh under a multi-million pound research and development programme.
The investment by AskBio will fund research that the company hopes will help it to cut the cost of manufacturing gene therapies and to increase the number of diseases they can treat.
It is working on therapies for genetic conditions such as congestive heart failure and Pompe disease, which can cause serious respiratory and heart problems.
READ MORE: £1bn expansion plan for flagship Edinburgh Bioquarter healthcare complex unveiled
AskBio has secured £1.99m official support in the form of a research and development grant from Scottish Enterprise.
The company said it will invest £3.4m alongside the grant from the agency.
The investment underlines the confidence that the American firm has in Scotland’s biotechnology capability.
AskBio acquired the Edinburgh-based Synpromics gene therapy business in August last year for an undisclosed sum.
Synpromics’ chief executive David Venables became president of AskBio Europe.
He said the Scottish Enterprise grant will allow the firm to undertake important research into the scalability of gene therapy manufacturing to help bring potentially transformative therapies to more patients.
Innovation Minister, Ivan McKee, said the R&D funding could support work that could have life-changing results for patients while creating new and highly skilled job opportunities in Edinburgh.
He noted: “It is important that that we continue to support global innovation and build Scotland’s world-leading life science sector.”
AskBio employs 40 people in Edinburgh currently.
Technology developed by North Carolina-based AskBio is used in therapies for the treatment of patients with inherited retinal disease and of patients with spinal muscular atrophy.
The company is focused on developing adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies. It says the virus can be used as an effective delivery system for therapeutic genetic material into living tissue.
It said: “Currently, AAV manufacturing is highly complex and historically inefficient with a high cost that limits some patients’ ability to access treatment. Developing economical, scalable processes is therefore a priority.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here