The Basque company IkerChem, specialised in high added-value chemical compounds for the pharmaceutical sector, and especially for the oncological area, has increased its capital reaching 1.5 million euros, thanks to the entry of shareholders Sendogi Capital and Gestión de Capital Riesgo del País Vasco, two public venture capital funds. A second placement, of equal value, is set to be paid at the end of 2012 or beginning of 2013.

According to the company, this capital increase seeks to finance the company's investments to develop its molecules and, afterwards, licence them to pharmaceuticals who will complete their development and marketing process.

IkerChem is a spin-off of a research group of the Basque Country University UPV/EHU. Since the beginning, it has managed to create a broad portfolio of compounds with anticancer potential against, at least, five therapeutic targets. Once the preclinical phase of these two molecules is completed, the company from Gipuzkoa will begin clinical trials to make available new oncological drugs.

The company's work methodology is based on a rational design of drugs, which differentiates it from the rest of the industry. Firstly, IkerChem analyses the source of the disease, which often is due to proteins that fail in their activity; subsequently they create a computerised 3D model of the protein. Based on this model they design compound families with the desired characteristics, which they test on tissue and animals before starting clinical trials.