AN Oxford University spin-off company, Prolysis, has been launched to search for new antibiotics.

Hospitals are concerned about new strains of bacterial diseases like pneumonia, which are resistant to common antibiotics such as penicillin.

Prolysis was set up to commercialise work by Prof Jeff Errington, of Oxford University, at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology - the lab where a team led by Howard Florey developed penicillin during the Second World War.

The company has now set up its headquarters at the former Cookson laboratories in Sandy Lane, Begbroke, which have been bought by Oxford University for its department of materials science.

Prof Errington said: "The American Medical Association and the House of Lords Select Committee have warned that increasing resistance to antimicrobial drugs has created a potential public-health crisis."

He added: "The complex challenges facing the modern drug discovery business can only be met with innovative and collaborative solutions."

The company was set up with £2.5m from Oxford Molecular.

Its chief executive, Peter Joshua, said: "Our move to purpose-built headquarters in Oxfordshire marks a milestone in our company's development. The increased office space and state-of-the-art laboratory facilities will enable the company to grow."

The company is now looking for pharmaceutical companies to join collaborative research.

Story date: Friday 24 December

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.