Fitabeo Therapeutics shortlisted for National StartUp Award

Fitabeo Therapeutics shortlisted for National StartUp Award

Edinburgh based Fitabeo Therapeutics has been identified as one of the most exciting new businesses in Scotland after being shortlisted in the StartUp Awards National Series.

The StartUp Awards National Series is a collaboration between the founders of the established Great British Entrepreneur Awards  and the successful Wales Start-Up Awards. The National Series has been extended this year to celebrate new business across the whole of the United Kingdom, and has attracted over 2,500 applications in its first-ever call for entries.

Fitabeo Therapeutics is a clinical stage, specialty pharmaceutical company developing medicines for patients with advanced incurable diseases / debilitating chronic conditions.  Fitabeo technology enables the complex release of one or more drugs on a fast dissolving, single layered film, capable of releasing drugs for up to twelve hours.

This technology has the potential to be life changing, by enabling the development and commercialisation of drugs that reduce medicine intake to twice a day, replacing traditional dosing and often invasive, hospital-based treatments. This would allow patients to maintain autonomy at home for longer, with predicted savings for healthcare across the world of more than £600 million a year by 2030.    

Mallikarjun Chityala, Co-Founder and CEO of Fitabeo Therapeutics said: “We are proud to have made it to the finals of the first ever Startup Awards National Series.  This recognition is significant in our journey as an early-stage company and of our vision of enhancing quality of life for patients and their families.

“Medicines currently being developed by Fitabeo Therapeutics will enable healthy ageing and also help significantly towards reducing the burden on healthcare by enhancing patient autonomy and medication adherence.”

Fitabeo Therapeutics is a spin out company from the University of Strathclyde which has been supported throughout by Strathclyde Inspire, the University’s entrepreneurship initiative. 

Supported nationally by BT, EY, Dell & Intel, the Startup Awards National Series celebrates the achievements of amazing individuals across the UK who have turned an idea into an opportunity and taken the risk to launch a new product or service.

The awards programme, was extended in 2022 to recognise the booming startup scene across the UK which has accelerated since the pandemic began. In 2020, when most of the world was shutting down, more than 400,000 startups were set up in Britain, with similar increases seen in other European countries.

Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE, the creator of the StartUp Awards National Series, said: “​​New firms are important for generating economic prosperity, employment opportunities and innovation. Since 2016, the Wales StartUp Awards have celebrated this amazing annual contribution to our economy by entrepreneurs and the impact they have on communities across the nation.

“Given the sheer volume of phenomenal startups we’ve heard from since then, as well as the huge post-pandemic shift in people’s desires to take their career in a new direction and set up a business against the odds, we felt it was the right time to take the programme nationwide. We’ve been blown away by the standard of entries in this first year and look forward to crowning the winners in June.”