Alta Bioscience wins £100,000 grant from Birmingham Post Fund

AltaBioscience Ltd, a specialist contract manufacturing and analysis organisation has won £100,000 in the form of a grant from the Birmingham Post Business Growth Fund, which will be used to expand the company’s current successful offering of the analysis of amino-acids for the food industry, pharmaceutical industry and academia.

The grant, which is supported by HM Government’s Regional Growth Fund through the Fund partners The Birmingham Post and Bournville College, is aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups in the Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry areas that are able to provide up to 50 per cent match funding from the Company. AltaBioscience was one of only 16 companies with successful bids from 200 applicants and one of only a small number who secured the maximum funding available. The funds will enable the Company to expand its capacity in amino acid analysis, one of its ISO 17025 accredited testing services, and provide jobs and training to support growth in other segments of the company.

Founded in 1973, the buiness is a portfolio company of Bioscience Ventures Limited, a joint venture formed in November 2010 between Abingdon Health, the specialist medical diagnostics company, and the University of Birmingham. The JV is developing new diagnostic tools for conditions where there is currently unmet need in markets such as oncology, genetic diseases and platform technologies with applications in many areas including infectious diseases, drug testing and veterinary.

Director Marion Peak commented “The award of this grant recognises the potential in the AltaBioscience business. The funds will facilitate the further expansion of the specialist services AltaBioscience offers to industry and academia, an area of continuing growth as the trend in outsourcing non-core activities in those sectors continues.”