Nurturing innovative laboratories via equipment funding

Who are Curve Therapeutics?

Curve Therapeutics (‘Curve’) is a private biotechnology company located at the Southampton Science Park, on the south coast of England. Founded by Simon Kerry (PhD, MBA) and Professor Ali Tavassoli in 2019, and backed by blue chip investors, Curve pioneer a revolutionary intracellular screening platform that identifies therapies that positively impact the pathway of a disease. This innovative technology can facilitate the design and development of a pipeline of new small molecule drugs against cancers and other high priority disease targets, altering the disease process and improving patient outcomes.

The catalyst for change

In 2022, Curve signed an agreement with Merck Sharp and Dohme, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Using their unique technology, Curve will use its technology to screen against five specific therapeutic targets. The research deal being worth up to US$1.7bn, should all five therapeutic programs succeed.

To conduct the required research, and to progress its in-house pipeline of innovative cancer drugs, Curve needed to increase the capacity and capability of their laboratories. By creating an environment with the latest cutting-edge scientific technology, they could also attract the brightest and highest calibre talent.

Accessing equipment finance

The life sciences industry is a well-connected and integrated ecosystem, with a culture of individuals and institutions working together. When procuring equipment, Curve was introduced to DLL by one of their laboratory equipment suppliers. By financing the equipment with DLL, Curve could access the latest scientific equipment, whilst preserving capital better used for expanding into their new research laboratory space.

"Our interactions with DLL have always been excellent and without your support we would not have been able to move into our new facilities and grow the team." says Simon Kerry.

On how DLL helped Curve, Karen Hill, DLL Sales Executive explains “The obvious benefit is that we are able to help organisations preserve their capital and keep budgeting simple and predictable. But what sets us apart is that through long standing relationships with many leading suppliers, DLL can combine the multiple needs of a customer into one simple finance solution.”

“DLL helps organisations get the mission critical equipment they need to advance their research and development objectives."

With the current ‘war for talent’, this can give the organisation a substantial competitive advantage, reducing an organisation’s go-to-market timeframe, getting them from concept to completion faster.”