CritiTech Inc. is preparing to hire 25 to 30 employees as its cancer-fighting drug formulation works its way through the federal approval process during the next three years.

The Lawrence-based company, founded a decade ago as an outgrowth of a Kansas University professor’s research into super-critical fluid technology, is working to win permission for use of its Nanotax formulation to fight ovarian and pancreatic cancers.

CritiTech recently closed a round of financing that generated more than $2 million for the company’s ongoing development efforts, which include work on another drug that would be complementary to Nanotax, said Sam Campbell, chief executive officer.

“Obviously, we feel great about it,” Campbell said. “Everybody in the company and those who are knowledgeable about it are very excited at this point.”

To help fund the company’s investigational new drug application for Nanotax, the Kansas Bioscience Authority has agreed to give CritiTech $260,000 through the authority’s Bioscience Tax Investment Incentive Program. The program allows the authority to cover up to 50 percent of a company’s net operating losses.

Among the program’s goals are to increase permanent, full-time employment in the state.

“This program fits perfectly for what we’re trying to achieve,” said Jan Katterhenry, the authority’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer. “I think this company has some fantastic opportunities.”

CritiTech’s application for money through the incentive program was one of several projects approved Friday by the authority’s board of directors. The others:

¢ Giving $1.25 million to an undisclosed company, described as a “Lenexa-based manufacturer of high-quality microbiology products,” for expanding manufacturing, research and development in Kansas. The company forecasts the expansion to cost $7 million to $12 million during the next five years, with an addition of 90 to 180 new employees.

¢ Giving Kansas Environmental Management Associates, Topeka, a research and development voucher for up to $312,000 of work with Kansas State University researchers on techniques for reducing phosphorous levels at cattle feedlots. The company intends to match the authority’s investment, while K-State plans to contribute $65,000.

The authority also is working with K-State to help fund research of Juergen Richt, an animal health researcher scheduled to join the university’s faculty in April. K-State will be expected to match the authority’s eventual contributions, and the authority anticipates Richt’s research efforts will attract up to $1 million a year in financing within several years of his arrival.

The bioscience authority, formed by the state in 2004, is a 15-year effort with an anticipated $588 million to conduct, facilitate, support, finance and perform bioscience research, development and commercialization in Kansas.

Goals include creating jobs, fostering economic growth and advancing scientific knowledge while making the state a national leader in bioscience.