Cosmix attracts second-round support

Germany’s Cosmix molecular biologicals GmbH in late August received s5million of second round funding from the Apax Europe IV fund and its seed funder, Buchler of Braunschweig.

Cosmix’s founder, Professor John Collins, spun the company out from Germany’s National Biotech Research Centre three years ago. The company’s proprietary technology, Cosmix-plexing’, provides a rapid means of identifying peptides that bind with high affinity and specificity to particular enzymes, receptors and other biological targets. Because peptides are cheaper to produces than alternatives such as monoclonal antibodies, the Cosmix technology represents a valuable novel platform for the development of therapeutics and diagnostics.

Cosmix’s platform technology has been validated in trials by clients such as Roche, Janssen, Fresenius and Cardiogene. Karen Hitsche of Apax says the group’s investment is “a continuation of its strategy of investing in platform technologies for the genomics and post-genomics era,” adding: “Cosmix’s technology has repeatedly proven to be superior to alternative technology practised by others an excellent basis for its planned worldwide expansion”.