A £200,000 investment from a "business angel" is helping an Oxfordshire biotech company to unlock the secrets of ancient Chinese herbal medicines and the way that they work.

Robert Miller, chairman of East West Biotech, of Kingham, said: "The investment has enabled us to launch a company which brings together expertise in traditional medicine and cutting edge biotechnology to develop pharmaceutical products for diseases that are difficult to treat.

"There could be an added bonus of providing less costly treatment for some serious medical conditions."

The company was put in touch with the business angel, who wishes to remain anonymous, through the Oxfordshire Investment Opportunities Network.

The joint-venture company was founded by an Oxfordshire supplier of traditional herbal medicine, East West Herbs Ltd, and biotechnology company, BIOsignal , of New York.

Mr Miller said: "Using East West Biotech's proprietary technology, BIOprinting, we believe we have solved many of the difficult problems including quality control, biological consistency and patenting of herbal medicines, which have prevented the development of traditional herbal medicines into modern phar- maceuticals."

"At the moment we have a clinical trial running at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, in conjunction with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund for two products for the side effects of nausea and fatigue caused by chemotherapy."

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