Inoviem Scientific is moving to new laboratory facilities in the Illkirch-Graffenstaden innovation park in northeast France after securing €650k ($693k) from Cap Innov’Est and a €100k ($107k) grant from Strasbourg Eurométropole.
The investment will help the company develop its sales activities outside Europe. Additionally, it will offer a new range of services related to its NPOT technology, which uses crude human tissue to identify therapeutic targets.
Part of the funding has already been invested in fitting out six laboratories to expand the company’s service range. The new laboratory facilities span 560 sq. meters – increasing its space by five-fold.
Previous investments and the next steps
In 2015, the contract research company raised more than €1 million ($1.07m) from Cap Innov’Est and Bpifrance.
As Outsourcing-Pharma.com reported at the time, the investment allowed the company to put its two proprietary drug discovery technologies into production and enter the European market. The company also said it expected to increase its staffing by 50%.
Dr Frédéric Perraud, Inoviem’s CFO confirmed it expanded its staff from nine to 13 in 2015, and now, to will grow to a maximum of 15 by the end of the year.
Perraud also told us the company has 14 agreements signed with pharma and biotech - up from five in 2015.
Additionally, turnover increased from 150k€ to 416k€, "so tripled in one year," he said.
Moving forward, the next steps are "to further increase the turnover; to generate positive results at the end of the year," and "to increase the number of agreements for long-term deals," Perraud added.