Livepool ChiroChem (LCC)
Livepool ChiroChem (LCC) make exceptionally pure chemicals in 3 steps rather than the usual 10, offering a more cost and time efficient product for the pharmaceutical research and development industries that use these chemicals.
Following the Thalidomide tragedy in the 1950s-60s which “resulted in severe birth defects in thousands of children” there has been the demand for ‘chirally’ pure chemicals for use in drugs.
Existing technologies to create such chemicals are very expensive and time-consuming. In fact, making use of incumbent techologies, there are upwards of 10 separate stages required to achieve the purity needed for research and development.
LCC are the only company whose methods create the exceptionally pure chemical form in just 3 steps, a much cheaper, faster solution. LCC are optimised to supply low volumes in short lead times and can retain more than a 70% gross margin on their products.
CEO, Dr Jianjun Wu, was the co-founder of Shanghai Bocchem in 2007, and managed its growth to profitability and an annual turnover of >£2 million within just 18 months. His chirality work was shortlisted for the top 3 of the Bionow Promising Technologist of the Year Award in 2014. Co-founder and Chairman Jianliang Xiao has had a fruitful history of R&D collaborations with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline. Jianliang received a prize for Process Chemistry Research from the Society of Chemistry and Industry in 2008.
LCC has already achieved initial sales into three pharmaceutical companies: Charles River, Redx oncology and Redx Anti-Infectives, and two academic institutions: the University of Liverpool and Uppsala University.
‘The ability to produce new, potentially important compounds provides the life blood to the industry and chiral compounds are vital to the development of new drug molecules. In 2011, the global chiral drugs market was worth over $600 billion per annum, accounting for 60% of the total drugs market. Moreover, the sector is growing and it has been predicted that by the year 2020, 95% of all pharmaceutical drugs will be chiral. Chiral compounds are extremely difficult to produce by traditional chemical methods and are currently very expensive or simply unavailable’. IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, November 2014.