Puridify
Puridify is a company.
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Leadership Team
Key people at Puridify.
Puridify is a company.
Key people at Puridify.
Puridify was a UK-based biotech startup that developed FibroSelect, a nanofiber-based platform purification technology for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. It targeted biotherapeutic producers by addressing high costs and inefficiencies in downstream purification processes, using 3D nanofibers for faster mass transfer, 10x higher efficiency, and up to 25% cost reductions compared to traditional bead resins and chromatography membranes.[1][2][3][4][5] The technology enabled scalable, flexible biomanufacturing, reducing unit costs from $300-1,000 per gram and saving drug companies £700,000-£2.7 million per batch, with early traction leading to its acquisition by GE Healthcare in 2017.[3][5][6]
Puridify emerged as a spinout from University College London’s (UCL) Department of Biochemical Engineering, with technology rooted in academic research on nanofiber purification.[3][4] Co-founder Oliver Hardick led the company, supported by Innovate UK funding for prototype development, which secured UK patents (one advanced internationally).[5] The idea addressed the mismatch between surging biotherapeutic demand—up 100-fold in 20 years—and outdated small-scale manufacturing methods.[5] Pivotal early funding included a £850,000 ($1.4m) seed round in 2014 co-led by Touchstone Innovations (now Imperial Innovations), SR One (GlaxoSmithKline’s VC arm), and UCL Business, followed by a $3.4m Series A in 2015 from the same investors, totaling $4.9m raised.[3][5][6] GSK extended evaluations of FibroSelect, validating its promise with biomanufacturers.[7]
Puridify rode the wave of exploding biopharmaceutical demand, where manufacturing bottlenecks limited access to high-value drugs like monoclonal antibodies despite a 100-fold market growth over two decades.[5] Its timing aligned with pressures for cost-effective, scalable bioprocessing amid rising complexity in biologics production.[1][2] Market forces favoring nanofiber innovations—driven by needs for speed, flexibility, and lower costs—positioned it well in the $20B+ downstream purification sector.[3] By advancing UCL research to industry-ready tech, Puridify influenced the ecosystem through investor milestones (e.g., SR One, Touchstone) and GE's integration, accelerating nanofiber adoption in global biomanufacturing.[3][4][6]
Post-2017 acquisition, Puridify's FibroSelect integrated into GE Healthcare's (now GE HealthCare) BioProcess portfolio, with continued investment for commercialization and staff retention at UCL-linked sites.[3][4][10] Next steps likely involve broader rollout in biopharma supply chains, leveraging GE's scale for global adoption. Trends like AI-optimized bioprocessing, personalized medicines, and capacity expansions for mRNA/cell therapies will amplify its impact, evolving nanofiber tech into a standard for efficient, high-volume production. This UCL spinout's journey—from lab to corporate powerhouse—exemplifies how targeted biotech innovations transform manufacturing constraints into ecosystem enablers.[3][5]
Key people at Puridify.
