A HI-TECH firm has axed 31 employees and been put up for sale after failing to secure funding for its pioneering cholesterol monitor.

Oxford Biosensors has gone into administration after funding was withdrawn in April for its on-the-spot monitor, which can provide a quick test using a pinprick of blood or saliva.

The Yarnton company, which span out of Oxford University in 2000, employed 47 staff, with only 16 now remaining.

It was set up to commercialise work by Oxford University professors Allen Hill and Peter Dobson.

Joint administrators Andrew Pear and Ian Cadlock, of Tenon Recovery, said more than 70 potential buyers had been contacted in a bid to fund development of the monitor. The size of a mobile phone, it can provide in five minutes results comparable to those from a lab.

It measures different kinds of cholesterol and substances known as triglycerides individually on one test strip, allowing doctors to assess patients' risk of heart attack.

The cholesterol monitor is being finalised for approval by drug regulators and launch, and the company has begun work on other monitors for diabetes and kidney function.

The company has raised about £18m from investors, grants and revenue from partners since 2000.

But the technology proved more costly and complex than originally anticipated and the existing investors decided not to finance the company to bring its products to market, said Mr Pear.

He said: “We are talking to several parties at the moment. Some of them are based overseas, in the US and Europe.

"This is a business that is still in the research stage, so it's much more risky than selling a company with a product on the market."

The company, which won the Innovation category of the Oxfordshire Business Awards in 2003, operates from a fully equipped state of the art research and development facility at Yarnton.

• Interested parties should contact Andrew Pear at Tenon Recovery on 01273 725566.