About us

The Founding Story

Aurum Biosciences Ltd develop novel oxygen carriers for use as therapeutics and diagnostics, initially for Acute Ischaemic Stroke (AIS) and inflammation imaging. Follow-on indications include heart disease, cardiac arrest, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and oncology.

Aurum’s lead product ABL-101 has undergone significant pre-clinical development and has completed early phase 1 and 2 human studies. ABL-101, which has previously received MHRA clinical trial approval in stroke, is planned for phase 2 trials in stroke and inflammation imaging in 2026/27.

Aurum, which has funding from The Wellcome Trust, InnoScot, Tricapital Angel Investors, Scottish Enterprise and a number of notable international and private investors, recently completed its final seed funding round in August 2025.

What Aurum is Today

Today Aurum is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with two Phase 2 trials panned to start soon - a stroke trial in India assessing ABL-101's therapeutic, diagnostic, and safety profile, and a carotid arteriosclerosis imaging trial in Switzerland, which is already approved by SwissMedic.

ABL-101 has been administered to 43 people across Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies, with a good safety profile. The company is backed by Wellcome Trust, InnoScot Health, Tricapital Angels, Infinion Biopharma, and Scottish Enterprise, and is headquartered at the Imaging Centre of Excellence at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow.

The Broader Mission

Stroke is ABL-101's lead indication, but oxygen deprivation is a common thread across a wide range of serious conditions — heart attack, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, cardiac arrest. Aurum's long-term mission is to make ABL-101, a platform drug, available wherever tissue is short of oxygen and is at risk of dying.