Investors have pumped £8m into an Oxford company developing a potential treatment for breast cancer.

Sterix, based at Oxford Science Park, specialises in design and discovery of new drugs derived from steroids.

The £8m is from four venture capital companies led by Avlar BioVentures, and including 3i, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation and Quester Capital Management.

Executive chairman Dr Peter Johnson said: "This investment is a clear endorsement not only of the progress we have made at Sterix, but also the quality of our science and drug development programmes."

The company is a spin-out from Bath University and Imperial College, London. Chief operating officer Dr John Normanton said: "We picked Oxford because it was midway between Bath and London and there was a science park here."

The investment will be used to expand research and development at Bath and in London and to take Sterix' second product, Oncomate, a steroid sulphatase inhibitor, into clinical development for the treatment of breast cancer.

Its first product, Oestramate, which has just passed its first safety trials, is the first synthetic oestrogen derivative to be tested on patients. It is licensed to a European pharmaceutical company.

Sterix, set up by scientists Dr Barry Potter, of Bath University, and Dr Mike Reed, of Imperial College, will also expand its Oxford headquarters, recruiting five scientists and senior management to take the headcount up to ten within two years.