On Highlights Autumn 2016 by One Nucleus

Autumn 2016 The One Nucleus team’s pumpkins

Welcome What a six months it has been since our Spring ON Highlights! The UK and the world seems to be undergoing monumental political change and doubtless when we come to prepare our next newsletter in the Spring of 2017, the landscape will look very different to today, not least given the US elections this month. Here at One Nucleus, the team and I concentrate on matters we can tangibly make a difference to. I once heard this approach described as recognising ones ‘spheres of influence’ and it’s a mantra the team and I have stuck to. Our mission from the outset has been to help our members maximise their global competitiveness and our vision is to be the best of our kind in Europe. We were therefore thrilled to receive two awards last month from Global Health & Pharma magazine. GHP is a peer nominated and peer reviewed awards process and we received ‘Best Global Life Sciences and Healthcare Membership Organisation’ and ‘European Life Sciences and Healthcare Not for Profit Organisation of the Year 2016’. Do be assured that we aren’t resting on our laurels

though – we continue to scrutinise our offering on a daily basis to ensure it is fit for purpose for our incredible members. Talking of whom… With this issue of ON Highlights we are showcasing some of our Corporate Sponsors and Partners. These organisations are pivotal to the work we do, both in terms of adding valuable content to our activities as well as sitting nicely alongside us in believing that the sector needs to be nurtured, practically supported and grown. We work with these organisations to support their objectives but also very importantly to create opportunities for interaction with our members and the wider sector. I hope you enjoy reading about their latest endeavours, as well as bringing yourselves up to date with

what some of our smaller members are doing that is hugely innovative and impactful. As we look ahead to the end of the year here at Granta Park, we are excited about our annual Genesis conference. This year it takes place on 1 December (do check out Page 24). We once again bring you the Genesis Fringe – a range of high quality events around Genesis led by other organisations that we are supporting. But before then we of course have had Hallowe’en! A big thank you to our Chair, Jon Green (VP of Operations at MedImmune) who has literally just judged Polly as the winner of One Nucleus’ first pumpkin carving completion!

IN THIS ISSUE

Smart Swedish Industry in Action

One Nucleus speaks to Dr Magnus Björsne, CEO at AstraZeneca’s BioVentureHub.

Catalysing Innovation by Exploring New Ways of Collaboration

Dr Martino Picardo, CEO of the SBC, talks to One Nucleus.

Changing Shapes: From Proteins to Business Models

We hear from Dr Hans Fliri, Chairman of both Selcia and Cypralis and Simon Kerr, CEO at Cypralis.

Member News

Autumn 2016

Smart Swedish Industry in Action Dr Magnus Björsne, CEO at AstraZeneca’s BioVentureHub

the AstraZeneca (AZ) research and development site in Gothenburg, Sweden, the aim of the BVH is to give emerging biotech/medtech companies and academic groups a unique opportunity to co-locate and interact with AZ scientists, and state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure as well as each other. What these companies need more than funding is access to skills; the kind of expertise that resides inside a big pharma company like ours. These companies are specialists in preclinical research, but they know less about how to commercialise and move the science forward to become a pharmaceutical product. Combining different value chains, ideas and perspectives – and using resources and capacity in a new Following a recent visit to way – the BVH exposes AZ to more AstraZeneca Gothenburg to science and provides the company learn more about the company’s with a unique catalyst for innovation BioVentureHub innovation model, on the Gothenburg site. By enabling Mikael Damberg, Swedish minister scientific and business innovation for Enterprise and Innovation, to cross boundaries, we hope to commented: ‘AstraZeneca’s facilitate translation of pioneering BioVentureHub is an exciting innovation model for strengthening ideas into scientific breakthroughs competitiveness and collaboration in and potential new medicines. the life science industry. It’s smart How does the AZ model differ Swedish industry in action, serving from other innovation hubs, bioas inspiration to other companies incubators and bio-accelerators? and industries when it comes to generating opportunities in the new The BVH model is quite simple industrial era.’ external companies rent office and/ One Nucleus speaks to Dr Magnus Björsne, CEO at AstraZeneca’s BioVentureHub, about the company’s ‘innovative innovation’ model. How did the BioVentureHub come about and why is open innovation important for AstraZeneca? AstraZeneca’s BioVentureHub (BVH) was established in 2014 as an open innovation ecosystem to further strengthen competitiveness and dynamism in the life science industry. Embedded at the heart of

ways. Firstly, rather than supporting start-ups, we focus on companies that are about to transition from being research-based to becoming companies that deal with product development. These companies can truly benefit from large pharma expertise and capabilities. Secondly, the BVH is about creating an environment where ‘innovative innovation’ can take place. We want to mix three value chains: pharma, medtech and digital health. Thirdly, geography is not a limiting factor we want to attract companies from across Europe and beyond. Is it correct that 60% of companies who apply are unsuccessful in getting space? Yes, we turn down approximately 60% of the companies that apply to join the BVH. There are four factors that guide the selection process: 1. Right stage – to benefit from this model, companies need to be about to transition from research-based activities to product development. 2. Financial stability – companies need to be properly financed to ensure long-term stability and sustainability

3. Science that utilises a combination of digital health, medtech, diagnostics and pharma. With the BVH, we believe we have or lab space in the middle of the created the foundation for this kind AZ Gothenburg site. When expert of scientific innovation by putting advice or support (e.g. advisory these value chains in the same boards, clinical trial design, special equipment) is needed, the company corridors contacts the AZ BVH team who 4. Synergy and potential assess resource availability and collaboration opportunities with arrange specialist support from other BVH companies and/or with within AZ. Resource costs are AstraZeneca covered by external BVH publicprivate funding, so the model is cost neutral. AZ has no stake, ownership or first right of refusal to innovations - no strings attached. The BVH model differs to other innovation hubs in three main

(Continued on page 3)

Member News

Autumn 2016

3 BVH at AZ Gothenburg

What is your strategy for growth? Essentially we have a four-pronged approach for growth: 1. Proactively attract companies that can add strategic value or would benefit from being located in the BVH 2. Increase external outreach and visibility to attract non-Swedish companies 3. Collaborate with the Swedish government, the Swedish Innovation Agency (Vinnova) and a Other areas of added value network of international investors include: to establish companies based on innovation that AZ doesn’t intend • Scientific collaborations that to commercialise (see www. would never have been possible azbioventurehub.com/news/news-2) without the BVH. These projects allow us to learn from each 4. Work closely with other other, rather than focusing on life science companies and financial objectives. organisations in the region to stimulate cluster innovation between digital health, medtech, diagnostics and pharma industries Are you currently at capacity or is space still being offered? We are happy to find space for the right companies who can contribute to and benefit from the BVH environment. How and when does AZ realise the value? First and foremost, by stimulating a more vibrant and dynamic research environment at our Gothenburg site. The BVH supports AZ’s strategic ambition to be a great place to work. Growing the life science ecosystem in the Gothenburg area and in Sweden also adds value as more companies in life science = more scientific research = more foreign investment = more job opportunities. The BVH has attracted external funding to the AZ Gothenburg site and provides development opportunities for AZ employees, e.g. secondment opportunities that help AZ personnel to gain a better understanding of the technology used within BVH companies.

• Mutual learning opportunities such as mentoring and entrepreneurship • Fostering an environment of innovation and demonstrating our company value: We are entrepreneurial

launched IPOs on NASDAQ, two new drug applications were approved for the start of clinical trials and one product was approved. Also, one BVH company, started in August 2015, now employs 28 employees and has a turnover north of SEK 50 million (£4.5 million). Any plans for expansion of the current Gothenberg hub or to replicate the BVH model at other AZ facilities?

• Generating significant PR opportunities (e.g. royal state visit, multiple ministerial visits, over 3,500 visitors to azbioventurehub.com from over 90 countries)

The AZ Gothenburg site, which is one of AZ’s three global, strategic R&D centres, is ideally suited to the BVH model as it is home to expertise and capabilities across all areas of pharmaceutical development: from discovery science to the finished medicines used in clinical trials and by patients.

• ABB, a leader in power and automation technologies with 120K employees worldwide, inspired by our innovation model, has based their SynerLeap robotics hub on the BVH concept

AZ believes in what science can achieve and values the partnerships that can ultimately help patients. Besides the BVH at AZ Gothenburg, we have also established two additional BioHubs at our Alderly Park (UK) and Waltham (USA) sites.

For more information, visit the BVH Can you share some success stories of where open innovation website: www.azbioventurehub.com or get the latest BVH Buzz: www. is working? azbioventurehub.com/news/bvhWe have to be a bit humble and buzz-2 make it clear that the companies may well have reached their milestones even if they weren’t part of the BVH, but nonetheless we are very proud that in the first year: two BVH companies successfully

Member News

Autumn 2016

Catalysing Innovation by Exploring New Ways of Collaboration Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst

The key is not being seduced by the science (I’m a ’techno-geek’ from my Amersham days) and focusing on picking winners that have a real chance of translating and being disruptive or game-changing. We stuck to our guns here from the start (and I’m grateful to the Board for backing me), focusing on science and people with an appetite to engage. Once you hit tipping point, the leaders have come and the followers have followed, and you have a ready-made ecosystem that has a similar mind and culture.

Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) is the UK’s first open innovation biomedical catalyst. Describing open innovation as a means of partnering and collaborating effectively, Dr Martino Picardo, CEO of the SBC, talks to One Nucleus. What is Open Innovation and how is SBC helping to deliver it? We have tried not to get bogged down with the terminology but we do follow the Chesbrough model which focuses on partnering and collaborating early enough in the industry/academia/start-up space to make a difference. It is an attitude; we frequently talk about having an appetite to engage and this is one of the biggest entry criteria for the SBC. We want to engage with good science and excellent scientists at an early stage in a way that we can help translate success early and efficiently, or help to stop or re-direct research where appropriate to avoid failing at a late

stage and after investment. It goes well beyond standard out-sourcing and builds on the principle that you can never grow an organisation so big and so efficient that you have the best of everything in one team. You have to partner and collaborate, and we are delivering quantifiable evidence that this is happening here and now.

Now the challenge is to build on that success and continue to raise the bar. In the past four years, we’ve had over £170 million investment in our tenants, which is staggering. I’m now looking forward to IPOs, trade sales and a new therapy or two on the horizon. Getting the word out and keeping the profile high with activities such as Discover Assist (helping early stage projects with advice and mentoring) and our Open Innovation Challenge in the neuroscience

‘Success depends on the quality of the tenants and the value they extract from within the ecosystem’

space has been key to keeping the As CEO, you’ve seen SBC grow motivation high. from concept to very successful reality. What have been the Success depends on the quality main challenges to that journey? of the tenants and the value they extract from within the ecosystem, It has been a really exciting, and specifically working proximally enjoyable journey, and I am lucky to GSK. enough to work with a truly great team. It has also been about the We have initiated a really interesting people and science that I have met project with Lancaster University to and heard about along the way. better-define our business models (Continued on page 5)

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Autumn 2016

Dr Martino Picardo, CEO of the SBC

Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs). This is unexplored territory and, with the Crick Institute opening up, we are keen to explore more opportunities with them. Our role will be to continue to catalyse innovation across the UK, not just in Stevenage, so watch this space! We are always looking for new partners, so do come and speak with us if you have interesting science that requires translational assistance. How do you see the life sciences and healthcare sector in the UK developing over the next 3-5 years? and quantify the value of Open Innovation.

proud to be associated. I see the ecosystem growing exponentially in a fascinating area with great prospects for patient benefit.

SBC will be the site of a new state-of-art Cell & Gene Therapy manufacturing centre – tell us SBC has an impressive list of more tenants and wider community contacts – can you tell us about It is exciting! Having already a few of the exciting projects attracted UCL, University of and collaborations being Cambridge, MRCT and GE, alongside fostered? a whole host of other quality tenants (J&J, Lilly and Sanofi Our role is to help our high calibre have partnering offices here) we tenants foster a safe, engaging also successfully bid for the UK and interactive environment. We Catapult’s Cell & Gene Therapy have a mini-cluster of antibody and manufacturing centre, due to open antibody-alternative therapeutics

‘We must improve our translational capabilities from Universities and we need more early stage investment for our start-ups’

here in early 2017. We based the bid on our location (easy access to airports, at the heart of the golden triangle) and the quality of our growing ecosystem. We already had Trakcel, Tokyo Electron, Plasticell and Progenitor helping to exemplify what can be achieved. The south east is a hothouse for skills and training and Catapult really bought into our vision for the future. This is very much a national strategic endeavour and one that we are very

companies (Blink, Avacta, Ossianix, Tusk, Nascient, Shyden, Cyclogenix etc.) and we are just beginning to work with companies in the cell and gene therapy space. I’m excited by GSK’s announcement regarding the establishment of Galvani Bioelectronics at SBC. They recognise that we have good prospects in this arena. We are keen to partner more with the NHS, as we are doing with the

I see more changes from top to bottom. We must improve our translational capabilities from Universities and we need more early stage investment for our start-ups. I envisage more dramatic change within pharma and hopefully some large scale biotech growth in the UK. We are heading rapidly towards a hugely innovative digital health era for new medicine development that is bound to impact on the precision medicine and big data industries. I’m hoping for more joined-up thinking and connectivity within our life science communities across the UK. I hope that SBC will continue to build and succeed, growing the on-site capacity and within our ecosystem. We shall continue to promote Open Innovation as a means of partnering and collaborating effectively - early, locally, nationally and globally. For more visit www. stevenagecatalyst.com

Member News

Autumn 2016

Changing Shapes: From Proteins to Business Models Simon Kerr, CEO at Cypralis, Harriet Fear and Dr Hans Fliri, Chairman of Cypralis and

Selcia

needed a significant injection of capital to exploit it fully. We created Cypralis to focus upon IP generating activities, whilst Selcia’s CRO business focused on the 14-carbon radiolabelling business and contract drug discovery services.

Cypralis was spun out from parent company Selcia to exploit its extensive expertise and know-how in targeting a large family of protein targets involved in many acute and chronic diseases. We hear from Dr Hans Fliri, Chairman of Selcia and Cypralis and Simon Kerr, CEO at Cypralis, about the company and the importance of peptidyl-prolyl isomerases, known as PPIases

At the time of the MBO, we also had a small group of in-house medicinal chemists. In my previous career at Novartis and Aventis, I had recognised that PPIase inhibitors had a large, underexploited therapeutic potential and followed the field closely. This provided Selcia with our USP in medicinal chemistry. Selcia established a major collaboration with a US biopharma company and the business became Tell us a little about Selcia and profitable in 2007. With the help of how the Cypralis spin-out came an EEDA grant, we created a biology about unit and began to establish our own IP, in the area of cyclophilins. Hans Fliri (HF): Selcia was This led to a second major pharma founded in 2005 as an MBO collaboration with Gilead Sciences from Scynexis Europe Ltd. We immediately reoriented the business Inc, generating two preclinical candidates. During this time, the model and focused on USP and science around cyclophilins and their niche activities. We started with a small 14-carbon radiolabelling group role in disease grew exponentially, indicating roles in diseases that of four people. Custom labelling had not been recognised before. using 14-carbon is an activity with Simultaneously, Selcia developed high entry barriers for newcomers an unrivalled understanding of SAR (which we had already overcome), so the main challenge was growing (structure-activity relationships) and generated several new the business in a market with only chemical families with selectivity for one other major global competitor. We implemented high quality (GLP, cyclophilin subtypes. GMP) standards and consistently So, Selcia had a CRO business generated year-on-year doublewith exceptional growth and a digit growth. Selcia is now firmly strong market position and we established as the second largest had a unique drug discovery provider of isotope labelling platform with broad therapeutic (14-carbon and stable isotopes) and commercial potential, but we services worldwide.

Simon Kerr (SK): I was introduced to Hans shortly after the Selcia Board had taken the decision to create Cypralis. The opportunity seemed to fit well with my experience in building biotech companies and Selcia’s depth of expertise within the cyclophilin field appealed to me. The breadth of potential indications where cyclophilin inhibition could make a difference was exciting. However, we needed to develop a strategy to secure long-term support from investors and collaborators. We also completed a deal with Scynexis Inc to acquire their compound library and now have an unmatched collection of cyclophilin inhibitors, with the potential for sub-type selective, first-in-class drugs to treat several acute and chronic degenerative diseases. The next stage will be to raise significant capital from VCs, whilst continuing to pursue capital from sources such as pharma collaborations and grants. The two companies maintain a strong relationship – practically how does this work? SK: Cypralis operates separately from Selcia but collaborates closely on the chemistry and biology required to support our drug discovery efforts. All of Selcia’s cyclophilin-based IP has been transferred to Cypralis, but the key scientists remain employees of Selcia, providing medicinal chemistry services to Cypralis under a Master Services Agreement. We have exclusive rights to Selcia’s cyclophilin chemistry, although (Continued on page 7)

Member News PPIase assay services are offered to other companies on a fee-forservice basis. We took the decision early on that Cypralis should be based at arms-length from Selcia, which is headquartered near Ongar, Essex. Cypralis has an office at the Babraham Research Campus in South Cambridge with the intention of establishing biology labs there once funding has been secured. Mike Peel (CSO) and I are based at Babraham but chemistry will remain at Selcia under sub-contract, for the foreseeable future. We meet faceto-face with the Selcia team at least once per week, although we usually communicate daily.

Autumn 2016 PPIases inhibitors have activity as antivirals (HCV, HIV) and as antiinflammatory agents. They could be valuable in preventing cell death in degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and muscular dystrophies. A role for cyclophilin inhibitors in cancer has also been described. What are your research priorities?

SK: Acute indications that require a short duration of treatment, as a rational pathway to clinical proof of concept. The first indication we’re pursuing is acute pancreatitis. Risk factors include many of the hallmarks of a western diet and lifestyle including hyperlipidemia, Hans is chairman of both obesity and alcohol use. The companies, and we are also incidence of acute pancreatitis is fortunate to have Nicola Bakerrising fast globally. It accounts for Munton and Andreas Rummelt 500,000 hospital admissions in the on our Board. Nicola is CEO EU and US per year and it’s very of Stratagem IPM and runs all expensive to manage. There are of our IP; Andreas is CEO of currently no disease-modifying InterPharmaLink AG and was therapies available. However, previously CEO of Sandoz and a Professor Sutton at the Liverpool Member of the Novartis Executive Pancreas Biomedical Research Committee. Unit has provided solid evidence for the role of cyclophilin D in the PPIases are known to be initiation and progression of acute involved in many acute and pancreatitis, using cyclophilin D chronic diseases - what are they knockout mice and small molecule and what do they do? cyclophilin inhibitors. We believe there is a significant opportunity HF: PPIases facilitate shape for a new cyclophilin inhibitor drug, changes in client proteins and by delivered by the intravenous route, doing so, they act as ‘functional as a disease-modifying treatment switches’ that induce, or block, for mild to moderate acute the activity of such client proteins. pancreatitis. We’re collaborating They include the cyclophilin family and several have been successfully closely with Professor Sutton and have already demonstrated crystalized, allowing the rational excellent cell protection in several design of new inhibitors. Over the assays, including in vivo models of last few years, a number of knocktissue damage. down studies have demonstrated a clear link between certain The next step is to nominate a cyclophilins and several disease pre-clinical candidate for our lead states. These properties combine programme and move towards to make cyclophilins attractive entry into the clinic from midand tractable targets for drug 2018. Our objective is to take the discovery. They play fundamental lead compound to clinical proof of roles in signal transduction, cell concept whilst building our pipeline growth and differentiation, in of earlier stage programmes. If we cell death mechanisms, and are achieve that objective, we expect to used by infectious pathogens as open up several pathways for other virulence factors or for replication. hospital-based indications, driven by

the same mitochondrial mechanism. Cypralis actively seeks to establish collaborations with Pharma/Biotech – can you update us on a few ongoing projects? SK: In addition to our lead programme in acute pancreatitis, there are many other potential chronic diseases where cyclophilin inhibition offers the opportunity for disease-modification. However, we are unlikely to have sufficient funding to progress more than two programmes, at least within the next three years. With this in mind, we are exploring partnership opportunities in chronic diseases that could include mitochondrial DNA mediated diseases such as Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, pancreatic degeneration resulting from diabetes and liver fibrosis. We already have an agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc, based upon the previous successful collaboration with Selcia. We also announced an early-stage deal with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc in December 2015; a joint research programme to generate a new class of CNS penetrant, selective inhibitors of cyclophilin D that can target degenerative diseases including CNS degeneration. The medicinal chemistry and PPIase screening has been sub-contracted to Selcia. Clearly, this is an area of enormous potential but is also high-risk, so it needs the major resources that a big pharma can bring. We have other ideas in the pipeline too. HF: This is an exciting time for both companies, in different ways. I think the decision to focus our efforts on two distinct business models was the right one, but I am very pleased we continue to work together so closely. Long may this continue! www.cypralis.com www.selcia.com

Member News

Autumn 2016

The Amgen Foundation: Bringing the Excitement of Discovery to the Scientists of Tomorrow Amgen Foundation students

top names in the field, at one of the most elite facilities, has been invaluable. And the immersive nature of the programme is incomparable.’

The Amgen Foundation advances excellence in science education, developing and supporting initiatives around the world, as part of a commitment to the next generation of life science innovators. In Cambridge recently, the annual symposium of one of its signature programmes, Amgen Scholars, convened more than 100 of Europe’s top life science undergraduates following summer projects at leading academic research centres. Drawn from 25 countries, these young people are some of tomorrow’s life science leaders. Each year, the Amgen Scholars Europe Programme aims to inspire a remarkable group of students by providing opportunities for them to engage in cutting-edge research at some of Europe’s premier institutions. Gaining experience of life in top-flight research teams under top academic leaders, they each become part of a wider community of Amgen Scholars, coming together in the annual symposium to meet their peers, learn about biotechnology and hear from a wide selection of leading scientists.

2010 Amgen Scholar participant Vladan Martinović was studying at the University of Belgrade when he was awarded a placement at the University of Cambridge to work with geneticist Professor Cahir O’Kane on hereditary spastic paraplegia, a progressive and incurable motor neurone disease. After further study back in Serbia, he completed his PhD in Biochemistry at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 2015. ‘The Amgen Scholars Since the inception of the Programme was one of the most programme in Europe in 2009, five important things that has happened premier educational institutions to me,’ Martinović says. ‘I realised have hosted a total of 636 scholars: that I enjoy working in the lab on University of Cambridge, Ludwig independent projects that tackle Maximilians Universität (Munich), serious scientific problems.’ Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm) and – more recently – Institute Abigail Fowden, professor and head Pasteur (Paris) and Eidgenössische of the School of Biological Sciences Technische Hochschule Zürich at the University of Cambridge, (Switzerland). chaired the 2016 Amgen Scholars A placement on the Amgen Scholars programme can be a very important component of an emerging scientific career. 2016 Amgen Scholar participant Alexandra Klein was studying at University of Birmingham when she was awarded a place on the Amgen Scholars Europe programme at Ludwig Maximilians Universität. Klein worked with Professor Michael Boshart’s group, investigating a key pathway in the parasites which cause the disease African trypanosomiasis, with the potential to one day use this pathway to develop a new treatment. ’My time in the Amgen Scholars Programme has been one of the most impactful experiences of my education,’ Klein says. ‘Being able to work alongside some of the

Europe Symposium. ‘The University of Cambridge is honoured to participate in the Amgen Scholars Programme and host the Amgen Scholars Europe Symposium again this year,’ she said. ‘Bringing together so many bright young minds and experienced scientists in one place to share ideas and explore new concepts will help inform the future of biologic research and innovations.’ Partnerships are central to solving the world’s greatest life science and health challenges. ‘To inspire and prepare the next generation of scientists requires companies, governments and academia to work together,’ said Chris Walker, vice president of European Regulatory Affairs and UK Research and Development Lead, Amgen. Those (Continued on page 10)

Member News links are clearly illustrated at the symposium, with each Amgen Scholar presenting their summer research project in a poster session where the ‘buzz’ of bright minds exchanging ideas and learning about each other’s work filled the room. Worldwide, over the past 10 years, the Amgen Scholars Programme has provided research opportunities to more than 3,100 undergraduate students, achieving some impressive outcomes: 778 have continued in Masters and PhD

Autumn 2016 programmes, 336 entered careers in science, 220 undertook other forms of professional education in scientific fields and 111 studied for MD-PhD (medical doctor) programmes. There are 66 Amgen Scholars who have already completed a PhD. It is a $50 million commitment for the Amgen Foundation over twelve years. To date, the Foundation has donated over $250 million to local, regional, and international nonprofit organisations that impact society in inspiring and innovative

ways – truly bringing the excitement of discovery to the scientists of tomorrow. Applications for the 2017 Amgen Scholars Programme will open on 1 November 2016 - for more information visit www. amgenscholars.eu

Roche: If We Fail in Innovation, We Fail as a Company

Evidently, Roche is doing something right and when, as a Professor of Pharmaceutical Innovation at King’s College London, Gino Martini was given the privilege to work with Roche as an Innovation and Outreach Lead, he was excited to contribute to Roche’s mission to provide patients access to often life changing medicines. Even though Roche is known for its excellence in oncology, Roche have also developed important treatments in the areas of immunology, ophthalmology, neuroscience and infectious diseases. In the latter case of infectious diseases, Roche are developing a number of novel antibiotics therapies to combat the emerging global threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Roche’s Welwyn site

‘If we fail in innovation, we fail as a company’ are the frank words used by Severin Schwan CEO, Roche Pharmaceuticals, to underpin how important the role that innovation must play if Roche is to continue to develop therapies for unmet medical need. Between 2013 and 2016 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded Roche 14 Breakthrough Therapy Designations. This is a designation used by the FDA to recognise novel medicines that address unmet needs where treatments are not currently available. So what is the formula for this sustained success? Although the answer is complex and multifactorial, two factors do standout and these are investment and organisational structure.

but also as a centre of excellence for late stage clinical development and is one of the most significant sponsors of clinical trials in the UK.

With respect to organisational structure, the principle is focused on With respect to investment, Roche’s decentralisation, allowing scientists Global R&D spend in 2015 was the freedom to be creative and to £7.1 billion and it is ranked the take calculated risks. number one investor within the The Roche operating model is biotechnology sector. unique in that R&D is split into In the UK alone, Roche invested early and late stage development. nearly £0.5 billion in R&D in 2015, Early stage research is split into contributed £820 million to UK GDP independent units or ‘REDs’ which and employ over 1,400 people at operate predominantly out of Basel, their UK headquarters in Welwyn San Francisco and Tokyo. These Garden City. In fact, Roche has had REDs are truly independent in that an association with Welwyn for over there is no overall Head of R&D and 75 years and operates not only as each RED reports directly to the the UK Corporate Headquarters CEO. This unique structure provides (Continued on page 11)

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research teams the time to develop insight and understanding about the molecular mechanisms underpinning disease and potential targets for treatment. The key emphasis being that research is about quality and not about scale. However, once a molecule transitions into late stage development then perspective changes. Here scale is the most important factor as Roche is able to

Autumn 2016 leverage its resources and networks in order to conduct the large clinical trials required in order to achieve registration. It is this careful balance of small versus large, which has allowed Roche to be so successful in its development of breakthrough medicines.

UK discovers, develops and delivers medicines that re-write medical text books’, which underpins the company’s drive to be at the fore front of cutting edge science. www.roche.com

The final words of this profile go to Richard Erwin, Roche UK General Manager, who states ‘Roche in the

AstraZeneca Getting Closer AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot and Mene Pangalos, EVP, IMED

sector, HRH the Duke of York’s Pitch@Palace, a platform to help entrepreneurs across the UK advance their business ideas, and a number of programmes run by the University of Cambridge Judge Business School’s Entrepreneurship Centre, including Accelerate Cambridge. The partnership with Judge is just as much about challenging thinking within AstraZeneca and exposing the mentors to new approaches that can be applied back to their own work and the work of their teams.

With nearly two thousand AstraZeneca and MedImmune scientists and professionals now based in Cambridge, the opportunities to get involved in the ecosystem are ever increasing.

AstraZeneca is a science-led organisation and it is science that has brought the company to Cambridge to be part of the city’s rich research, business and clinical ecosystem. This is evidenced by the broad range of partnerships the AstraZeneca accelerated its company has entered into with the transition to Cambridge, with the likes of the Sanger Institute, MRC majority of staff arriving here ahead Laboratory of Molecular Biology and of completion of the new R&D centre University of Cambridge – to name and Corporate Headquarters on the just a few. Cambridge Biomedical Campus. This acceleration has been driven by the As part of their work to support desire to co-locate AstraZeneca and innovation in the life sciences, MedImmune teams as quickly as AstraZeneca is involved with a possible in this exciting environment number of business mentoring and to allow opportunities to work initiatives. This includes the more closely with the Cambridge OneStart scheme, one of the science community as early as world’s largest initiatives to support possible. young innovators in the life science

Since March 2015, AstraZeneca has been supporting the Accelerate Cambridge programme to further engage, train and mentor fledgling life science businesses. Volunteer mentors come from a range of roles within AstraZeneca, with expertise in areas such as business development, marketing, intellectual property, early development and innovation alliances. Over sixty AstraZeneca and MedImmune mentors are now involved in the programme and have worked with around seventy-five start-ups so far, sharing business expertise with the next generation of biotechs. The company benefit’s hugely from their entrepreneurial thinking which allows it to have a hand in shaping the future of the industry. Collaboration between pharma companies and the wider research (Continued on page 12)

Member News community, including academia and biotechs, plays an increasingly important role in accelerating scientific advances and is a vital component in the discovery and delivery of the next generation of life-saving medicines.

Autumn 2016 The opening of AstraZeneca’s new R&D centre and Corporate Headquarters in Cambridge is fast approaching. While the construction work progresses, the proximity of staff to opportunities to engage with new ideas challenges the team to be entrepreneurial about the future

of life-sciences across the UK and globally. For more information, visit www. astrazeneca.com

Babraham Bioscience Technologies Babraham Bioscience Technologies

of office and laboratory space on land just inside the security perimeter and outline planning consent was received at the end 2014. This land is known as ’R&D II’ and BBT is actively pursuing ways to exploit this opportunity. The vision for the Babraham Research Campus is to be the pre-eminent site in Europe to set up and scale a lifescience enterprise. The campus is considered already to be one of the most successful, and a site of best practice as it pertains to the co-location of academic and commercial science. Babraham Bioscience Technologies (BBT) is the company that manages and develops the Babraham Research Campus, supporting and promoting the regional and UK bioscience ecosystem. The campus is home to over 60 companies, co-located with the Babraham Institute and is considered to be the UK’s leading campus to support early-stage bioscience enterprise. World class research and business come together to promote innovation and strengthen links between academia and the commercial world. The campus offers bespoke, state-of-the-art research and development facilities, scientific support services for bio-ventures and a supportive and well networked community at the heart of the Cambridge life-science cluster. In 2015, the construction of a 48,500 sq. ft. build by Imperial College commenced on campus; this building will be complete by the end of 2016.

sq. ft. The building was completed in early 2016 and is occupied by F Star Biotechnology Limited and 14M Genomics. The project will also provide a social infrastructure facility (named The Cambridge Building), which will include a 200 seat lecture theatre, meeting rooms, bar and a main restaurant for around 250 covers. The Cambridge Building will be completed at the end of 2016. It will be a focal point on the campus when it opens its operation and catering services in January 2017. It will bring the campus community together, being over 1,000 people and over 60 companies, on a daily basis. The Cambridge Building offers a premier venue for conferences and events ranging from business meetings and training days to large scale conferences. It is uniquely situated to host events and provide existing opportunities to broaden networks of collaborative partners on campus and externally.

During 2014, BBT committed to a £17 million project to build a new In 2014, BBT submitted a planning laboratory and office building of 22,000 application to build up to 108,000 sq ft

Of note, and one of the distinct features of the campus, is the provision of services and access to equipment that can be provided through BBT’s Technology Development Laboratory (TDL). The aim of the TDL is to provide access to ’as needed’ bench space, access to scientific capital equipment (e.g. Biacore), and an FTE based service business providing cell purification or monoclonal antibody production. These services are augmented by those available within the Babraham Institute such as mass-spectrometry, cell sorting, bioinformatics, state-of-the-art microscopy and biological services. www.babraham.com

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Autumn 2016

Chesterford Research Park: Supporting Innovation and Facilitating Growth DRW’s base in the Science Village at Chesterford Researdh Park

and economic growth. From an initial 470 nominations, Dr Lee’s invention won in the SME category.

As a community, Chesterford Research Park’s occupiers have amassed an impressive record for producing cutting-edge technology and ground-breaking scientific discoveries. Home to innovative biotech and pharmaceutical companies the park is exceptionally proud of the work being undertaken on site. Current occupiers include Charles River Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Isogenica, Axol Bioscience and Domainex. Most recently, Arecor (leaders in formulation technology innovation) also confirmed its move to Chesterford, scheduled for later this year. Earlier in the year, another park occupier, Diagnostics for the Real World (DRW) celebrated success when CEO, Dr Helen Lee, was awarded the European Inventor of the Year Award by the European Patent Office. Award winning science The prestigious European Patent Office annual award honours outstanding inventors who, through their work, have made an exceptional contribution to social development, technological progress

with nucleic acid-based assays, a combination of chemicals in a disposable cartridge that will change colour in the presence of viral RNA in blood plasma samples. DRW’s SAMBA System has already been used to screen 40,000 people for HIV in Malawi, Uganda and a growing number of other areas in co-operation with Doctors Without Borders, amongst others.

The invention from Helen and her team at DRW is a rapid blood diagnostic kit developed for resource-poor regions of the globe. The kit allows for on-the-spot detection of infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B and chlamydia. Through fast, simpleto-read results, the kits are already Supporting Innovation and Growth helping to track and better treat HIV A large community has developed infection in Africa. at the park that supports high levels of innovation and collaboration. Making a real difference As part of this community, which While the spread of HIV is largely includes the Babraham Institute, the contained in developed countries, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the disease continues apace in Cancer Research UK and University regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, of Cambridge, Chesterford occupiers where around 25 million* people benefit from access to experienced are currently living with the virus. individuals with relevant skills as Diagnosis and treatment is key to well as exceptional graduates in stopping the pandemic, but a lack key disciplines such as biomedical of clinical infrastructure continues to science, medical engineering, life stifle progress. sciences, molecular medicines and applied sciences. Inexpensive and precise, DRW’s SAMBA (Simple AMplification The park is particularly mindful of Based Assay) system solves the its role in creating a supportive and fundamental problems of infectious nurturing environment, supporting disease outreach in resource-poor development of tomorrow’s areas. The tests deliver results scientific breakthroughs. Initiatives without the need for refrigeration including a coach service to and (the kits can be stored at from Cambridge and a car lift-share temperatures of up to 37°C for nine scheme help occupiers reduce months). In addition, the process commute times. Once on-site, the does not require highly trained Nucleus central facilities, which personnel or elaborate equipment includes a daily restaurant service and results are delivered within and health and fitness centre, minutes, preventing patients leaving actively encourage a balanced work/ before diagnosis – an issue that can life experience. account for 30-70% of all patients. *70% of the global total, according The tests monitor viral load in to the World Health Organisation. patients’ blood, which is critical for gauging drug doses for treatment. www.chesterfordresearchpark.com Administered as a simple blood plasma test the ‘instant’ results are visible to the naked eye, rather than requiring costly microscopes or visualisation techniques to make a diagnosis. Patients’ blood is mixed

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Autumn 2016

Change is Guaranteed Bobby Deal, Director of GRS

regulations may have an impact on existing clients as well as the life science sector as a whole. This knowledge is invaluable when reviewing a client’s strategy and, by applying the rule of ‘one size does not fit all’ (see photo), the strategy is often re-written. Yes, change will cause a ‘chain reaction’!

Change is one thing that you can guarantee in the life sciences industry and, boy, has there been change over the past 12 months! Currently, the biggest challenges facing life science organisations is how to keep up, understand and cope with these changes, especially when it comes to regulatory affairs and quality compliance. Global Regulatory Services (GRS) works with a worldwide network of professionals and specialists to constantly scan the horizon to see if regulations are changing or new regulations are being implemented. They assess how these changing

It’s important to remember that events in one country can often have an impact elsewhere in the world. For example, the European Medical Device Directives are to be replaced by two European Regulations: one for medical devices and one for in vitro diagnostics (IVDs). These new regulations will be coming into force during 2017, at which point medical device companies will have a threeyear transition period to become compliant and IVDs will have five years. When you consider the multinationals with their global portfolios consisting of thousands of products, any changes they have to make because of these new EU regulations will also result in changes across the global portfolio. Of course, the SMEs are also feeling the impact of these new regulations and, with less resource to cope with the changes, it is going to be a significant challenge.

companies have very similar values and with their combined knowledge, expertise and manpower, have the capability to benchmark a global product portfolio against the incoming regulations, determine a strategy on how to reach compliance and then provide the resource and expertise to implement change worldwide. Interestingly, many people believe it would be awkward to enter into such a close relationship with a competitor. From the inception of GRS, the company realised that there is tremendous strength and value in working with other consultancies, i.e. ‘co-opetition’. To have the opportunity to encourage the cross-fertilisation of experience, know-how and ideas is invaluable and over again this has proved to be a winning formula for GRS clients and, ultimately, the patient. GRS is known as a ‘company of connections’, which means that they often receive some very unusual requests. For example, many of you will have watched the film War Horse. But have any of you thought about the wounds and the dirt on the horses? Of course, these wounds and dirt are not real and they are regulated and, yes, GRS has the expertise!

To ensure that GRS can fully support www.globalregulatoryservices.com companies in the medtech space, as of 9 June 2016, it entered into a formal alliance with a US-based consultancy, YourEncore. Both

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Autumn 2016

Research to Revenue Dr Sally Ann Forsyth, CEO of Norwich Research Park

facilities, business support and of technology is exponential and access to finance to help them grow. its multi-disciplinary approach an advantage. By creating these The park is already the largest networks, the park is able to single-site concentration of food, leverage creativity between health and life science researchers technology sectors to find new in Europe. It is also unique in having applications. As the campus is world-class research institutes, a 1km in radius residents are only a university and a teaching hospital maximum of 20 minutes’ walk away all within its 1km radius. This makes from another link in the innovation collaboration between researchers, supply chain and this definitely clinicians and entrepreneurs both helps to ensure speedy delivery to possible and profitable. market. In terms of new developments, the new Quadram Institute (QI), due to open in 2018, is a good example of the park’s multidisciplinary approach. It will unite 400 researchers and clinicians from the Institute of Food Research, In the last year the number of the University of East Anglia’s businesses on the Norwich Research Medical School and the NHS Norfolk Park (NRP) has increased by 50% & Norwich University Hospital’s and the park is now home to over gastrointestinal endoscopy unit 60 companies alongside six of its which will be treating 40,000 founding Partner institutions. This patients a year. provides jobs for around 12,000 QI is unique in that it is one of employees of whom 3,000 are the first purpose built facilities researchers and clinicians. The that brings research offices and vision at NRP is to further grow laboratories together with hospital as a world class research, science facilities in a single building. It will and business community by enable clinicians and researchers to creating a supportive environment work alongside each other helping for innovation in order to drive to speed the application of new development on the park. The research innovations to patient care park’s growth is testimony to the – a real bench to bedside approach. added value services and facilities

The park also focuses on providing the right facilities for organisations as they grow from pre-start-ups to established firms. Accommodation offer starts with Accelerator Offices, where you can rent individual desks from just £210 per month. This is complemented by our Accelerator Laboratory which is available from £695 per month making it ideal for fledgling companies looking to undertake proof of concept work. The Innovation Centre and Centrum building provide lab and office space for more established companies on flexible terms with rental prices from as little as £14 per sq.ft, which is deliberately priced to make it affordable for growing firms. There is also land available for new developments to accommodate those larger companies that need their own space.

on offer as well as its crossdisciplinary culture. This supportive environment is helping to deliver jobs and economic benefit to the region.

In the latest exciting development, NRP secured Enterprise Zone status earlier this year. The Park has outline planning permission for 1.7m sq. ft. and businesses locating in the Enterprise Zone will benefit from business rate discounts worth up to £275,000 over five years.

Another exciting development is the Leaf Systems International Ltd, a new £5 million translation facility funded by the BBSRC, John Innes Centre, Plant Bioscience Ltd and Norwich Research Park. It uses Referred to as the research-totechnology developed at the John revenue approach, it’s all about Innes Centre to produce high value making it easy for research organisations to get their innovative proteins in plants. Pharmaceutical companies will be able to work with ideas out of the lab and into the the company to develop production global marketplace. On the park of vaccines faster and cheaper than there is a highly networked group traditional methods. of researchers, entrepreneurs and investors that come together to It’s not about property but the support that innovation pipeline. people and their interaction that Knowing that small businesses have is key to making the NRP cluster limited resources it is vital that so vibrant. The rate of change the park provides shared scientific

www.norwichresearchpark.com

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Autumn 2016

Speeding innovation in UK R&D Research chemist at Erl Wood, Lilly’s R&D site

different functional disciplines. The site is a centre for the company’s neuroscience research; some of the world’s best scientists across industry and academia collaborate at the site, working together to find new treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and chronic pain. The company’s specialist neuroscience research is complemented by a range of UK investments and partnerships, include supporting the global Dementia Discovery Fund, the UKled Dementia Consortium, investing in a UK-based venture capital fund, Epidarex, and numerous partnerships with academia and biotech companies.

Lilly is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. Founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, Lilly remains true to that mission today. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism.

Lilly is committed to partnerships which advance the most exciting scientific breakthroughs and, as part of Lilly’s overall research and development strategy, it focuses on ’hot spots’ of innovation. One of those hot-spots is Europe — and Lilly’s Erl Wood Research and Development site, within the Golden Triangle, is ideally placed to tap into this region. Failure rates in clinical development are still unacceptably high and an enhanced understanding of disease and disease pathways is required to maintain the flow of medicines to patients1. Lilly’s external R&D models support these goals via the integration of academic basic science, funding, and development. The company deploys a number of flexible models to link outstanding science with the expertise of Lilly scientists across a broad range of therapeutic areas and functions.

Lilly’s first UK office opened in 1934 and today employs approximately 2,800 people throughout the country, working in sales and marketing, research and development and bio-tech manufacturing in human and animal It has invested in several venture health. capital funds which have created Lilly’s Erl Wood research and new companies—aiming to deliver development site in Surrey, founded breakthrough biopharmaceutical in 1967, is Lilly’s largest research products to patients. Lilly is site outside of the USA and is home committed to working with to over 600 people, representing premier life science universities, 45 different nationalities and 30

investigators and companies around the world to advance such innovation. Lilly’s early phase drug development team, Chorus, can be deployed to advance these breakthroughs rapidly through clinical phases. Alongside neurodegeneration and chronic pain, Lilly’s research priorities are aligned with significant UK health needs including diabetes, autoimmune conditions and cancer. The company has more than 30 active clinical studies in the UK, and the potential to bring 20 new products to launch addressing these important areas by 2023. Lilly’s commitment to research in the UK is dependent on its ability to access an exceptionally skilled scientific and academic workforce alongside competitive fiscal incentives and rapid uptake of innovative new medicines. Lilly is proud of their work to drive increased collaboration across industry and academia to speed the delivery of new treatments to help make life better for patients around the world. To learn more about Lilly, please visit www.lilly.co.uk, and for more information on its external innovation and partnering, visit www.advancinginnovation.lilly.com Footnotes: 1. J Lechleiter, Forbes, 31 March 2015

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Autumn 2016

Benralizumab: a Novel Anti-eosinophil Monoclonal Antibody and near complete depletion of eosinophils in the bone marrow, blood and target tissue. As this pivotal phase 3 trial data was released for MedImmune’s first respiratory biologic, the team working on benralizumab for the past decade felt as though they were watching their child grow to achieve adult success. Having met primary and key secondary endpoints in these momentous trials, MedImmune’s hope is that they will be able to offer a treatment option in meaningful ways as an add-on therapy for severe, uncontrolled asthma with eosinophilic inflammation. Benralizumab is a monoclonal antibody (mAb) that depletes eosinophils via antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity; the process by which natural killer cells are activated to target eosinophils. Eosinophils are important drivers of frequent exacerbations of patients with asthma, and particularly those with severe, uncontrolled asthma.

reduction of eosinophils in lung tissue was seen and complete depletion in the bone marrow, the tissue site where eosinophils originate. The data revealed that benralizumab was taking a direct path to eosinophils and wiping them out.

There are still many unmet needs within the circumference of asthma, of course, and the team are very aware of its heterogeneity. But, the eosinophilic model offers an important principle through which the company will continue to look toward targeting the right patients with the right drugs. Within the larger context of RIA (respiratory, inflammation and autoimmunity) research and development, MedImmune’s focus is on the biological pathways that characterise these conditions and that may offer a platform for disruptive breakthroughs in treatment.

Novel drug, different mechanism of action Beyond an IL-5 inhibitor For patients in clinical trials, data When MedImmune, the global biologics research and development showed a reduction in annual arm of AstraZeneca, completed the exacerbations and improvement in lung function and asthma symptoms first phase 1 trial of benralizumab — with similar adverse event in 2008, it was unmistakable: the frequency between benralizumab team were on to something very and placebo-treated patients in both important. In that trial, a potent, pivotal studies and few frequent rapid and sustained depletion of www.medimmune.com adverse events, and infrequent dose eosinophils was observed. Within (every 8 weeks). Benralizumab 24 hours after the first dose was administered to patients, eosinophils binds directly to the eosinophil via the IL-5 receptor on the surface of were no longer detectable. In a the cell and induces direct, rapid, subsequent clinical study, a >95%

01 December 2016 QEII Centre, Westminster, London, UK genesisconference.com #ongc16

genesis 2016

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Autumn 2016

How to Deliver Better Healthcare Across Europe: Seven ‘Vital Signs’ of a Healthy Health Economy Health systems in Europe are diverse - the result of history, culture and the economic and political environment in which they operate. Deloitte has developed a report that explores the performance of six European countries - Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and the UK, to try and understand how these countries are tackling the health and care challenges they face. These challenges are remarkably similar: • Unrelenting demand pressures, due to increases in the size and ageing of the population • Growing public expectations for more personalised and convenient services • A miss-match between demand and supply of numbers and types of healthcare staff • Increasing costs of providing healthcare, driven by the availability of new technology, innovative medical equipment and pharmaceutical interventions • A desire to provide high-quality care, equitable access and optimal outcomes within an affordable, and sustainable, cost envelope

Prevention is an investment in people’s health, reducing the burden of disease and contributing to the sustainability of health systems.. A fully funded prevention strategy should be at the core of every health system and requires a new social contract between planners, payers, providers and the public, based on new models of co-creation and self-management. It also requires investment in improving health literacy, especially in the over 75s and socially disadvantaged groups.

are dying. The holistic management of pain and symptoms not only improves patient experience but has also been shown to reduce costs. Improving care requires effective community engagement, adoption of digital technologies and provision of staff education and training. Importantly, it requires staff to have the confidence to identify when someone is dying and to communicate with, advise and guide, those who are dying and their families.

A strong, well-resourced primary care system can provide patients with consistency and continuity of care and help control demand for more expensive, unwarranted, hospital-based interventions. There is a need to develop new business models in partnership with patients and carers that incentivise the accelerated use of technologies and encourage staff to work differently. Key to improving performance is an ability to work across organisational boundaries and develop lasting partnerships and alliances.

Empowering people to be involved in decisions about their own and their family’s health requires citizens to have the knowledge and information sufficient to imbue confidence and a willingness to engage in decisions about their treatment. Patient engagement is an essential strategy for achieving the triple aim of: improving patient experience; improving the health of the population; and reducing per capita costs of healthcare.

5. Patient engagement and 2. Primary care today and tomorrow empowerment

3. Productivity in hospitals

While hospitals will always be a much needed resource for acute and emergency care, there is enormous scope to improve staff productivity, Deloitte’s report draws on an standardise clinical pathways, extensive body of published develop and adhere to explicit literature, data from international guidelines and develop IT systems benchmarking reports and their that cement these practices into the experience in the health and social everyday work of staff, including care, and life sciences sectors. providing information and support Health system performance is to patients from admission through examined through the lens of seven to discharge and rehabilitation. ‘Vital Signs’. 4. Palliative and end-of-life care The ’Vital Signs’ explored in the A ‘good death’ requires support from report are: multi-disciplinary teams focussed on 1. Prevention and health promotion the physical, social, psychological and spiritual concerns of those who

6. Population health management (PHM) Progress with PHM in Europe is fragmented and at a relatively early stage of implementation. PHM means assuming responsibility for the quality of care and outcomes of a defined population, and being accountable for those outcomes within an agreed cost envelope. Adoption of PHM is essential in matching healthcare demand to supply, tackling health inequalities and reducing the gaps in care delivery and funding. 7. Partnerships between industry, providers and academia Partnerships between industry, academia and healthcare providers, implemented effectively, can (Continued on page 18)

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help deliver economic benefit alongside improvements to health and wellbeing for people across Europe. A well-integrated medical research community with trusted partnerships between healthcare providers, academia and industry, leads to better health outcomes and a stronger economy.

Autumn 2016 While no country has developed the perfect healthcare system, Deloitte believe that addressing the seven ‘Vital Signs’ will help all countries to reduce health inequalities and address variation in performance between and within countries’ health systems By sharing the insights in its report Deloitte hope to stimulate discussion and debate

and help countries deliver better health for the population, better experience and outcomes for patients and better value for money from healthcare expenditure. www2.deloitte.com/uk/en.html

Taylor Wessing LLP - UK Life Sciences and Brexit

The precise extent of the impact of the Brexit vote on the UK life sciences sector will not be clear for some time. It will depend upon the negotiations between the UK and the European Union after Article 50 has been triggered, as well as the nature of the UK’s relationship with the EU once it leaves. The key issues to follow in the area of the authorisation and exclusivity of life sciences products, are expected to be the following:

obtaining a market authorisation (MA) for medicinal products are governed by EU law. Under the centralised procedure, MAs take effect across the entire EU. The decentralised procedure and the mutual recognition procedure require cooperation between the national competent agencies of the EU Member States. Is it possible for the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to remain part of these procedures post-Brexit? This will depend upon the precise nature of the UK’s future relationship with the EU and the degree of cooperation between the MHRA and EU regulators provided for in any exit deal.

In relation to medical devices, the CE marking regime is due to be Location of the European replaced by European Regulations Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2017, before the terms of Brexit The EMA is an EU body that evaluates and authorises medicinal have been agreed. It is expected that immediately prior to Brexit, products within the EU and the these regulations will be replaced in European Economic Area, and is currently located in London. There is the UK, using the Great Repeal Act. no legal requirement that the EMA Patents and the Unified Patent headquarters must be situated in Court (UPC) an EU member state. The EMA has, The existing patent system in however, stressed that ’the decision Europe, which is governed by the on the seat of the Agency will … European Patent Convention (EPC) be decided by common agreement (a non-EU treaty), will be largely among the representatives of unaffected by Brexit. However, the Member States’. Should the the UK’s ratification of the future EMA relocate, countries including UPC and Unitary Patent system Denmark, Italy, Spain and Sweden is now considered too politically have expressed an interest in difficult and uncertain for the UK hosting its new headquarters. in the short term. In particular, participation would require the UK Regulation of Medicines and to submit to a new layer of Court of Medical Devices Justice authority. A solution to this Three of the four routes for

difficulty may still be found, but a further possibility is that the UPC is restructured to enable the UK and other non-EU EPC countries to participate. It is unlikely that these issues will be resolved until after exit of the UK from the EU, perhaps in 2019. Patents, Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) and Exclusivity Rights SPCs, paediatric extensions to SPCs and market exclusivity for orphan medicinal products are all governed by EU regulations. An SPC can provide up to 5 years’ further monopoly protection on top of the patent term. The paediatric regulation allows a further sixmonth extension of the SPC, where any application for the authorisation of new indications for a medicinal product includes results in compliance with an agreed paediatric investigation plan. To encourage companies to develop drugs treating rare diseases, an orphan medicines regulation provides a 10-year period following the grant of an MA, during which no directly competing or similar product can be placed on the market. It is expected that the regulations providing for these rights will be replaced, immediately post-Brexit, by operation of the Great Repeal Act. united-kingdom.taylorwessing.com

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Autumn 2016

Russia-UK Cooperation in Life Sciences Grows The Russian pharmaceutical market is growing 8% year-on-year and is expected to reach US $27 billion by 2018. This is why more British companies are now looking to Russia for future collaborations and business partnerships. To capitalise on the opportunities that Russia’s pharmaceutical market presents, the Department for International Trade (DIT) and the British Embassy in Moscow organised a two-day partnering event together with Russia’s leading science park Skolkovo, on 24-25 May 2016, with nine British companies participating at the event. While the first day focused on what the UK can offer to Russian companies, the second day was aimed at presenting the Russian market to the British participants. On both days, time was set aside for

face-to-face meetings between the delegates and Russian companies’ representatives to discuss areas of cooperation. Russia is attractive to the UK life science community, not least because of a strong demand for innovative drugs, a modern life sciences infrastructure and workforce with a huge appetite for European technology and knowhow. Feedback from all companies attending was positive, with some deals signed during the two-day visit, and return visits by some companies to develop leads. Global pharma companies including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Abbot Labs and Novartis have invested heavily in local production in Russia. The most recent deal announced was GSK’s ViiV Healthcare partnership,

with the local manufacturing production facility enabling full cycle manufacturing of an HIV drug by 2017. Pharmaceuticals and medical devices are not affected by sanctions which makes this sector even more attractive to British companies. DIT is eager to provide the support needed for your business to grow in Russia. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to join the next mission to Saint Petersburg on 9-10 November to attend a major bio pharma conference in the North-West of Russia. If you’d like to be part of this delegation, please contact DIT healthcare team for further details by emailing ekaterina.zhuravleva@fco.gov.uk www.gov.uk/dit

Increasing Diversity in Science What can we do to increase diversity in science and help young people fulfil their potential?

students for five years and has shown that that 78% of participant’s progress to science degrees and STEM careers. Feedback shows ‘Science organisations and their that 100% of participants would researchers are the key’ says Dr recommend the programme Rebecca Mckelvey, founder of the to a peer, which is something award winning charity in2scienceUK. in2scienceUK are very proud of. Researchers are passionate and knowledgeable experts in their field. 100% of participants are from low income backgrounds, 91% have While 96% of privately educated parents without an HE degree and students in the UK progress to 76% are from Black, Asian and university, just 18% of those on Minority Ethnic groups. free school meals (the poorest in our society) do the same. This In 2017, in2scienceUK is expanding leads to a huge waste of potential. to Harlow and Cambridge. Its In2scienceUK tackles this by aim is to leverage the local STEM leveraging the passion, knowledge community to make a tangible and expertise of researchers who difference to local young people. provide a bespoke programme of A partnership launch with Abcam work placements, career guidance has been hugely rewarding for the and tailored workshops to give students who have participated in those most in need the skills and a sponsored image competition. knowledge to succeed. To measure In 2017, Abcam will also launch a impact, the charity tracks all bespoke mentoring programme.

Alan Hirzel, CEO of Abcam, said ‘We were thrilled to get involved with this scheme. As a business that has always closely collaborated with the scientific community, we believe inspiring the next generation is critical to advancing future scientific research.’ If your company would like to support this worthy initiative contact Dr Rebecca McKelvey 07985 945557/ r.mckelvey@in2scienceuk. org www.in2scienceuk.org

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Autumn 2016

Avacta Demonstrates Progress in Diagnostics and Therapeutics Avacta’s new 5,500 sq ft Cambridge site on the Lion Works Business Park in Whittlesford

develop a novel, potentially highly potent drug class which combines Affimer technology with Glythera’s PermaLink conjugation chemistry. The companies say this new class of highly targeted bio-therapeutics could be a superior alternative to the established class of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), a market estimated to be worth $10 billion by 2024.

Avacta, the Wetherby and Cambridge based developer of Affimer technology, a small protein based, engineered alternative to antibodies, has announced multiple successes in recent months.

will be developing Affimer-based rapid diagnostic assays, which will subsequently be incorporated into new lateral flow devices (LFDs) as POC diagnostics for human healthcare.

In June the Company said it has identified three Affimer proteins capable of binding to a recombinant form of a secreted Zika virus protein which is diagnostic of Zika virus infection at the early, acute stage. Importantly, these Affimer binders are highly specific and can therefore differentiate in human serum from five other closely related viruses that give similar symptoms, and have the potential to be developed into new rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests for Zika infection.

With Leeds University, Avacta will be working on an MRC funded project to develop novel rapid tests to differentiate between viral and bacterial infections, and different bacterial strains. The aim is to support more targeted use of antibiotics, reducing the number of wrongly prescribed treatments and increasing efficacy for patients, which will in turn contribute to a reduction in anti-microbial resistance (AMR).

The combined potential benefits of the Affimer and PermaLink technologies have the potential to reduce development times, with the ability to ‘design-in’ the required pharmacokinetics (the time the drug spends in the blood stream), in a much easier overall process, with greater consistency and lower production costs. The small size of the Affimer molecule is also likely to also improve tumour penetration compared with antibodies, which are ten times larger in size. Dr Smith said: ‘Avacta’s Affimer technology has significant benefits for drug conjugate development, and the combination of the two companies’ technologies has the potential to deliver a best-in-class solution for those wishing to access such a platform.’

Most recently, Avacta announced positive results from the first preclinical in vivo studies of its therapeutic Affimer molecules, Alastair Smith, CEO of Avacta, said: demonstrating that Affimer Avacta said that they were able to ‘I’m very pleased to be working with molecules possess good in-vivo identify and characterise the Affimer Mologic, who are well recognised as drug-like properties in terms of efficacy, serum half-life and binders within just thirteen weeks of an innovative developer of lateral tolerability, which is, it says, ‘a receiving the virus target, offering flow devices. Additionally, the hugely important milestone in the a distinct advantage in dealing combination of Affimer reagents development and de-risking of with outbreaks of infectious agents with the innovative microfluidic the technology as a therapeutic where speed of response is key. devices developed at Leeds platform.’ University is very promising and New collaboration agreements with could lead to a new class of rapid www.avacta.com both Mologic and Leeds University test device.’ have also been announced, marking steps forward for Avacta in the On the therapeutics side Avacta point-of-care (POC) diagnostics has announced a collaboration market. With Mologic, Avacta agreement with Glythera, to

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Autumn 2016

Public-Private Partnership Looks into Link Between Epigenetics and Respiratory Disease Dr Justin Bryans, Director, Drug Discovery, at MRC Technology

mostly focused on cancer, will help speed up the delivery of new treatments. The collaboration combines the resources of the partner organisations; expertise in drug discovery and clinical development, funding, and access to research networks and patient groups, to enable early stage scientific research to be translated into potential new therapies.

MRC Technology (MRCT), AstraZeneca, Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation announced in September that they have formed a collaboration to find new epigenetic drug treatments for respiratory diseases.

The collaboration has a particular focus on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and the partners are also interested in hearing from researchers looking into epigenetic modulators acting in biological pathways relevant to respiratory, inflammatory or autoimmune disease, such as those involved in determining particular immune cell subsets or phenotypes. More information can be found at www. callfortargets.org/respiratory.

Millions of people are affected by respiratory disease every year and it is hoped that epigenetics research, which up until now has

Dr Justin Bryans, Director, Drug Discovery, at MRC Technology said: ‘Our collaboration improves the likelihood that promising research

will be translated into potential new patient treatments. The funding and support from Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation will enable us to identify innovative science to progress in our own laboratories, while AstraZeneca’s expertise is invaluable to get therapies into the clinic.’ Maarten Kraan, Head of the Respiratory and Inflammation Innovative Medicines Unit at AstraZeneca, said: ‘With novel therapeutic strategies directed against epigenetic changes, this collaboration represents an important step forward in AstraZeneca’s commitment to the fundamental research needed to find transformative medicines for the hundreds of millions of patients afflicted by these conditions.’ www.mrctechnology.org

The Longitude Prize The Longitude Prize is a five-year challenge with a £10 million prize fund. It commemorates the 300th anniversary of the Longitude Act of 1714, the first British challenge prize, to determine longitude at sea. In 2014, with the support of the BBC and Amazon, the public decided the focus of the new Longitude Prize to be antibiotic resistance.

that is easy to use, anywhere in the world. This global Prize is being developed by Nesta, supported by Innovate UK. How to win

To win the Prize, teams must prove to the Prize Advisory Panel (judges) that their diagnostic meets the overall objective of transforming treatment decisions The Prize aims to conserve to significantly reduce the misuse antibiotics for future generations, and overuse of antibiotics. The prize revolutionising global healthcare. It organisers have not defined the test is looking to award one prize of £8 they are looking for, as they are million to a team that can develop a looking for something truly novel transformative, accurate, affordable, and unforeseen. Tests that could rapid point-of-care diagnostic test theoretically win the prize are those

that accurately distinguish between bacterial and other infections – ruling antibiotics in or out. At the opposite end of the spectrum tests could go further and look at the resistance and susceptibility profile of the infection to various antibiotic classes. Deadlines for submitting the information needed to win occur every four months, on 31 January, 31 May and 30 September each year. Applications will remain open until the Panel and Committee agree there is a winner, or until the last submission date of 30 September 2019. (Continued on page 22)

Member News

Autumn 2016

How to enter

Submission

Registration

When ready to submit a full entry to win the Prize, you’ll need to provide an equivalent of a target product profile. You will also need to have developed a design locked prototype.

Sign up on the website and provide a short description of your idea. Once registered, you can work on your idea until you decide if and when you are ready to make a full submission to win the Prize. Registered teams are at different stages of development with their ideas and are under no obligation to submit a winning solution.

any accuracy. If a team makes it through this assessment process, the prize will be awarded by the Longitude Committee. The prize money should be used to bring diagnostic to market, worldwide. https://longitudeprize.org

A full assessment process is expected, which includes clinical trials, to take at least 18 months. However, as the test is not defined by the organisers, nor sample type, it is impossible to predict this with

Combatting Bribery and Corruption from bribing. ICU Outreach seeks to raise awareness of the section 7 defence available under the Act and promote the ‘Six Principles’ from the Ministry of Justice Guidance (Ministry of Justice Guidance about procedures, which relevant commercial organisations can put into place to prevent persons associated with them from bribing): Proportionate Procedures, Top-Level Commitment, Risk Assessment, Due Diligence, Communication and Monitoring and Review. • Trace and recover the proceeds The National Crime Agency’s of international corruption International Corruption Unit has given the UK an enhanced capability to combat international bribery and • Support HM Treasury with the enforcement of financial corruption. sanctions Supported by the Department The ICU also works with business for International Development, to support increased compliance the International Corruption Unit with the UK Bribery Act 2010. Under (ICU) went live in June 2015 and is made up of a team of more than section 7 of this Act, commercial organisations can be criminally 50 investigators with extensive liable for failure to prevent bribery experience in international if a person associated with their corruption and financial investigation. Its main functions are organisation bribes another person intending to obtain or retain to: business or a business advantage • Investigate money laundering for that organisation. in the UK resulting from grand A commercial organisation will corruption overseas have a full defence to the section 7 • Investigate international bribery offence if it can demonstrate that it offences under the UK Bribery has adequate procedures in place to Act 2010 prevent persons associated with it

The ICU would be particularly interested to hear from companies who have come across corrupt practices in their industry. For advice on reporting possible bribery and corruption offences, or queries on the law enforcement approach to international corruption issues, please contact the ICU at: Contact ICU@nca.x.gsi.gov.uk Further information and links can be found at the ICU pages on the NCA website: http://www.nationalcrimeagency. gov.uk/about-us/what-we-do/ economic-crime/internationalcorruption-unit-icu

Member News

Autumn 2016

Owlstone Medical Makes Great Strides to Commercialise Disease Breathalyser

The potential of the technology to enable rapid detection of disease, without the need for costly, invasive medical procedures, resulted recently in the company announcing that it is expanding its Lung Cancer Indicator Detection (LuCID) clinical trial. The study, originally funded Earlier this year, Owlstone Medical by the Small Business Research spun out of parent company, Initiative for Healthcare (SBRI Owlstone Inc, to focus on Healthcare), the NHS England developing and commercialising funded initiative, aims to save a breathalyser for use in clinical 10,000 lives and save the NHS diagnostics and precision medicine £245 million by 2020 with a quick, with applications in cancer, easy to use, non-invasive, highinflammatory and infectious disease. compliance breath test to detect The company successfully raised lung cancer. The study will recruit $7 million (£4.9 million) financing, up to 3,000 patients across 21 sites which is being used to fund ongoing in the UK and Europe, making it the clinical trials of the breathalyser in world’s largest breath-based study lung and colon cancer screening. ever undertaken for early cancer detection. Owlstone Medical was created to leverage proprietary and proven To support Owlstone Medical’s Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility ambitious plans, the company has Spectrometry (FAIMS) technology expanded with a number of new for the advancement of a disease hires with three appointments to breathalyser. FAIMS measures its senior team, including business volatile organic compound (VOCs) development, clinical research and metabolites in patient’s breath or manufacturing executives. bodily fluids, which are specific Chris Hodkinson has been appointed to disease. Measurement of VOC as VP Business Development, biomarkers allows diagnosis of with responsibility for managing disease at a very early stage, to enable more effective treatment and commercial efforts for the company’s cancer products. Chris better patient outcomes. joined from Abcodia, a company Billy Boyle co-founder and CEO developing tests for early at Owlstone Medical commented: detection of cancer, where he was ‘Securing this funding has been a co-founder, Director and Chief further validation of our technology, Operating Officer. and we are excited to progress our vision to revolutionise the detection Dr Marc van der Schee joined as Lead Clinical Research Scientist to and diagnosis of cancer, infectious design and oversee all clinical trials and inflammatory diseases. The where he is responsible for driving breathalyser we are developing product development through into provides clinicians with a highly clinical practice. Marc’s 10 years of sensitive, non-invasive diagnostic,

Owlstone Medical’s ReCIVA Breath Sampler

Billy Boyle co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical

which will enable early detection and improve patient outcomes. We are also working with pharma partners to develop non-invasive companion diagnostics to better match patients to treatment for emerging personalised therapies.’

experience in the field of volatile biomarker research spans medical, epidemiological, chemical analytical and data-analysis. During his PhD he pioneered the use of exhaled breath analysis in lung cancer, asthma and colorectal cancer amongst others. For this work he received various awards including a Marie Curie Fellowship. Hamilton Scanlon has taken the role as VP Manufacturing with, responsibility for manufacturing scale-up of the company’s clinical R&D tools used in biomarker discovery. He has over 30 years’ experience of taking products through the full development life cycle and into full scale production launch, from start-up companies through to PLCs and has set up manufacturing facilities in China, Italy and the UK. To find out more about Owlstone Medical visit: www.owlstonemedical. com

Spring 2016 24

Member News

Introducing GENESIS 2016 - Innovative Science and Business: Making a Difference to Patients • Digital Health – Opportunities and Challenges, Patientengagement Technologies and Investing in Digital Health

AstraZeneca and Mike Ward, Scrip Intelligence & Datamonitor set the scene around which areas of science and technology they see as impacting biomedical innovation along with which players are winning and losing ground compared to their peers. Our 16th Annual Genesis Whilst much of the growth in the Conference, taking place on Life Science sector is seen to be Thursday 1 December 2016 in happening in the small to mid-sized London will gather all the key private company space, much of the elements for those active in R&D, financing is through collaborations, finance, policy making and service licensing and M&A with Pharma. provision across the Life Sciences The Pharma panel session, chaired and Healthcare Sector. by Lisa Urquhart of EP Vantage, will then discuss what will drive growth Under our overarching theme of in the 21st Century and allow ‘The Science, Technologies and Business of 21st Century Biomedical continued investment in innovative Innovation’ over 70 expert speakers science and companies. and panellists will take part in Our afternoon Plenary Session sessions discussing what will drive will focus on immuno-oncology business growth whilst delivering which has been the hottest area better outcomes for all. of investment, deal making and Transforming great science and technology into significant benefit to patients, payers and investors globally requires new business models in an ever-changing world with respect to demographics, globalisation and data.

Plenary Sessions • The Science, Technologies and Business of 21st Century Biomedical Innovation: An AstraZeneca Perspective • ‘Winners and Losers of 2016’ • Driving Growth in the 21st Century • The Future of Immunooncology: A BMS Perspective • Which Global Events Will have the Most Significant Impact on our Sector into the Future The opening session of the conference will see our Keynote Speakers, Mene Pangalos,

patient expectation in recent years. One of the major players in this arena remains Bristol Myers Squibb who has developed and acquired a deep and exciting pipeline in the eyes of most analysts and commentators. This fire side chat with senior members of the BMS Executive Team will explore how they see future developments in this field along with the types of collaborations and deals they will be seeking in order to stay ahead of the pack. Parallel Streams • Nurturing Innovation – Gamechanging Technologies, the New Ecosystem and Innovation in Development Technologies

• Case Study Deals – Dissecting the Thought Process Behind Three of the Sector’s Most Innovative Deals • Therapeutic Futures – What Will Impact the Future on Treating Dementia, Chronic Respiratory Disorders and Infectious Diseases? Click here to view the full programme. Workshops A set of three focussed workshops looking at (i) Making sure your IP strategy is optimised for the 21st Century and next-generation healthcare; (ii) How to steer your Medtech product through development, regulation and market access; and (iii) How can employers revolutionise Medtech investing? Plus • pLITE powered by EBD, an online 1-2-1 meeting facility and complete list of co-participants in advance • Our BioNewsRound Award 2016 • Full access to all programme and networking sessions • NEW Genesis Grand Prize Draw – up to £3000 of travel vouchers for work, rest or play!! • Genesis Fringe: 29-30 November events available to Genesis delegates to maximise your return on visiting London Tony Jones, Director of Business Development

genesis 2016

London’s premier Life Science & Healthcare networking conference QEII Centre, Westminster, London | 1 December 2016 Genesis 2016, brought to by One Nucleus will focus on Biomedical Innovation: The Science, Technology and Business of the 21st Century and will build on our previous 15 years of experience in assembling a forum where industry executives, investors, academic researchers, policy makers and expert advisers can exchange ideas. Genesis 2016 will feature: •

Plenary Presentations and Panel Debates

•

Parallel Leadership Streams covering Case Study Deals, Therapeutic Advances, Digital Health and Nurturing Innovation

•

700+ delegates from across the international Life Science and Healthcare industry

•

50+ international exhibitors

•

Prescheduled face to face meetings

•

Genesis Fringe: focused events pre and post Genesis

•

2016 BioNewsRound Award Workshops

Join in the conversation #ongc16 genesisconference.com

26 One Nucleus News

Autumn 2016

ON Helix 2016: Translating UK Scientific Excellence into Global Therapeutic Strategies Susan Windham-Bannister, Biomedical Growth Strategies and

Biomedical Innovation Advisors

of Scientific Translation at the Francis Crick Institute in London. This new centre for translational research will change the way science is carried out, bringing scientists from all parts of the life science industry under one roof. It was fascinating to hear what they have planned and how they plan to challenge the way academia currently operates.

operate differently.

The final session of the day started with a lively debate, with Davidson Ateh chairing. Piers Mahon and Ian Tomlinson debating for the motion “I Don’t Know What all the Fuss is About - Funding for Translational Research in Fantastic in the UK and we Don’t Really Need More” and Keith Powell and Rowan Gardner fighting against it. One discussion, The first panel discussion of the day I’m sure we’ll all remember for a was chaired by Sir Keith Peters, now long time! a consultant at GSK, but someone We were lucky to have Professor who played a pivotal role in the Sir John Savill, CEO of the MRC development of the Clinical School in Cambridge. His fellow panellists, delivering the last keynote address of the day and Dr Jane Osbourn, Jon Moore, Rick Livesey, Dominic Wells and Emma Sceats led a lively Site Leader of MedImmune giving discussion about how developments the closing address. Both leaders of organisations that are pivotal in in iPS cells, organs on a chip and further exploiting veterinary models translational research and it was great to hear their thoughts to in research is the future. round off the day. By popular demand, breaks were This year, Marks & Clerk sponsored extended to allow more time ON Helix was back this summer the Drinks Reception. As usual, this for delegates to visit exhibitors at the Wellcome Trust Conference provided the perfect opportunity for and also have plenty of time to Centre for its fourth year. This delegates to unwind after a busy network. Lunch was served in the annual translational research day. event space, which allowed the conference has become the place conversation to flow even more We would also like to take where academia and industry than in previous years! This year, this opportunity to thank our come together under one roof to not only did the ice cream van other sponsors, MedImmune, exchange ideas and learn from each return, sponsored by PWC, but we AstraZeneca, Horizon Discovery, other’s past experiences. With a also had an interactive show by the The Communication Strategy Group great line up of keynote speakers Cambridge Science Centre during and the Greater Cambridge Greater and panel discussions, according lunch. Peterborough Enterprise Partnership to you, our members, this was the for all their support. best one yet! This year we had even more keynote addresses, Nick Lemoine kicked off the afternoon talking about the work the NIHR is doing and how researchers can get more involved in the network. He was followed by the second panel of the day, chaired by Jackie Hunter, investigating the role of tech transfer offices. Iain Thomas, Sue Sundstrom, Georg Buchner, Iqbal Hussain, along with Jackie, discussed how communication and strong relationships are critical in this area, highlighting The second keynote address was delivered by Professor David Roblin, the importance of understanding Chief Operating Officer and Director that different tech transfer offices The conference started on an international note, with Dr Susan Windham-Bannister talking about her involvement in the Massachusetts Life Science initiative, explaining how the government put time and money into the Massachusetts area to grow the life science cluster to the buzzing centre it is today. Not only was it a large investment of money, but also a change in mind set.

If you would like to find out more about ON Helix 2017, or have any questions about sponsoring or exhibiting, please visit www. onhelix.com or email me at nadia@ onenucleus.com. We look forward to seeing you all next year at ON Helix 2017! Dr Nadia Shivji, Events & Business Development Manager

One Nucleus News

Autumn 2016

Dates for your Diary 2017 JAN 04

BioWednesday Pub Social London

FEB 22

Network Meeting Barclays Eagle Labs Cambridge

JAN 25

Network Meeting Pub Social Cambridge

MAR 01

BioWednesday Queen Mary BioEnterprises, London

FEB 01

BioWednesday Olswang, London

APR 05

BioWednesday London

FEB 08

M11 Health Enterprise Forum Harlow

APR 26

Network Meeting Taylor Vinters, Cambridge

13 July 2017 Cambridge, UK

Translating UK scientific excellence into global therapeutic strategies

onhelix.com | #onhelix17

Wellcome Genome Campus Conference Centre, Cambridge

28 One Nucleus News

Autumn 2016

Life Science Leadership Series Our Life Science Leadership Series continue to focus on showcasing innovation that addresses specific areas of challenge for our members and the wider sector - whether therapeutic area, technology discipline or business challenge. In 2016 our LSLS evolved to better answer to the network needs and they now consist of three streams:

development. We also covered very relevant therapeutics areas for the industry which are Inflammatory Respiratory Diseases and Dementia especially in the context of the UK involvement in such research.

• Innovation Sessions – Showcasing the latest technical solutions to challenges in • Leadership Sessions – Half R&D. Various topics around or full day events covering drug conjugation and predevelopments within a specific clinical datasets were covered, therapeutic area. Given the providing the earlier stage importance of the topic in the companies in the network a region, we recently organised solid base to advance their a session on the impact of research projects on the drug Genomics on Drug Development development pathway. at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton which • Business Intelligence Sessions covered new developments – Data presentation and and programmes in genomics debate around key issues and and biodata and their impact to innovation in business practice. pharmaceutical industry and the These popular sessions saw processes of new therapeutics

topics relevant to all businesses including talent management, market access, clinical trial liability and equity financing discussed in small group sessions. The LSLS are a very important aspect of engagement with our members as we create them on members’ demand for topics and in collaboration with the right expertise in the network. So, if you would like to discuss any potential topic that represents an industry challenge or specific innovation aspects, please contact our Business Development Manager, Aline Charpentier on aline@onenucleus.com Tel: 01223 896451 Aline Charpentier, Business Development Manager

Purchasing and Support Suppliers The One Nucleus list of Support • MoneyMover Suppliers continues to grow in number with each offering discounts • Tier 2 Consulting to ALL our members. For the full list please see the Purchasing pages on the One Our newest Support Suppliers Nucleus website and here are the are: newest suppliers. • Cambridge Relocations Ltd • M-Files • MAP Biopharma

If you would like to offer your services to One Nucleus members please contact Aline at aline@ onenucleus.com.

Don’t forget we can perform a costbenefit analysis for Silver members thinking of upgrading, or new companies wishing to join as Gold members. Please contact Richard Dickinson on 01223 896453 or Richard@onenucleus.com Richard Dickinson, Director of Specialist Services

One Nucleus News

Autumn 2016

One Nucleus Training Update Softer Skills including: Powerful Presentations, Project Management, Negotiation and Communication. Do remember that One Nucleus members receive discounts on list prices for training courses. Members of the BIA, Bionow and CCRA receive a 10% discount off the non-member rate. All our courses can be adapted and tailored to meet your needs so please contact training@onenucleus. com to find out more. Claire Abrams, Project Manager: Genesis and Skills One Nucleus recognises that a company’s employees are its most valuable asset. Many rapidly growing companies overlook the need for ongoing training of their staff. We have developed a range of tailored training courses based on the needs of our member companies. We are constantly introducing courses on new subjects as our members’ needs change. In-house courses – let us bring the training to you. One area that has continued to grow in popularity is the development of our in-house offering - we tailor the training to suit your company and bring the course to you. This way, we can train 8-12 of your staff on your own premises, saving you time and travel expenses.

We continue to work in partnership with Pharmaceutical Training International (PTI), a global interactive training provider. Between the portfolios of One Nucleus and PTI, members can access discounts on over 80 tailored training courses covering the breadth of the life science industry, including: •

Agrochemicals

•

Animal Health

•

Biopharmaceuticals

•

Clinical Development

•

Fine Chemicals

•

Generics

•

Health & Safety

•

Manufacturing

Training providers • We are proud to be working with companies including; Haigh • Communications, Labstract, Managing Resources, NovoBio, • PPMLD, Research Applications, RiverRhee, SJC Safety Training and Stellar Learning to deliver our portfolio, full details of which can be found on the One Nucleus website.

NOV 9

NOV 14

Research & Development

Introduction to Drug Discovery

MAR 06

Introduction to Drug Development for NonScientific Professionals

MAR 07

Biological Safety: Management and Practice (2 day course)

MAR 09

Introduction to Drug Development for Scientific Professionals

MAR 14

The Safe Use and Management of Laboratory Gases

Medical Devices Regulatory Affairs

Presentation Skills for Scientists

30 One Nucleus News

Autumn 2016

Facilities Management number of One Nucleus members on various projects including Astex Therapeutics, Babraham Bioscience Technologies, Cantab He can provide project management Biopharmaceuticals, Pathology for office and laboratory fit-outs Diagnostics, Zoragen, Origin and can help with equipment Sciences, Iontas Ltd and service contracts, maintenance Spirogen Ltd. contracts, cleaning contracts, utility bills, insurance, purchasing and Richard can provide help by phone budgeting. or email as well as providing full onsite consultancy. ‘Richard has just finished the project management of an 8,000 Richard Dickinson, Director of sq. ft. laboratory and office fit out Specialist Services for IONTAS Ltd at Iconix Park 2 in Pampisford, which was on time and on budget.’

Richard Dickinson, One Nucleus’s Director of Specialist Services

a Facilities Manager and worked for more than 20 years in the life science sector.

Richard Dickinson, One Nucleus’s Director of Specialist Services, has over 15 years’ experience as

Richard is currently consulting at Abzena plc, Agenus (UK) Ltd, Aqdot Ltd, Econic Technologies, Inivata Ltd and Telensa. He has previously consulted for a

New Team Members: Aileen and Kirsty Kirsty Soulsby, Accounts Assistant at One Nucleus

Aileen Belsberg, Marketing Assistant at One Nucleus

keen to develop in her role at One Nucleus. Outside of work Aileen enjoys visiting different countries, socialising and keeping active. In addition to this, she is learning to speak Spanish. Aileen is looking forward to meeting the members and is especially excited to be a part of Genesis later this year.

Aileen has joined the team as the Marketing Assistant to follow her interest in the field. She is a recent graduate from the University of Lincoln where she studied for a BSc in Events Management. Previously, Aileen’s background is mainly in admin and events which she is

Kirsty has joined the team as an Accounts Assistant after wanting to pursue a career within the field. She graduated from Staffordshire University in 2007 where she studied a BA in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. Kirsty has worked in the insurance sector for seven years and has recently re-discovered her passion

for Accounting. Outside of work she enjoys indoor rock climbing, camping and cross stitch. Kirsty is also looking forward to meeting the members and being part of Genesis in December.

31One Nucleus News

Spring 2016

13 July 2017 Cambridge,UK

Translating UK scientific excellence into global therapeutic strategies ON Helix | 13 July 2017 | Cambridge A unique UK Translational Research Conference for the Life Science Industry An interactive case study based programme with practical insights on funding and collaborations in Translational Research projects, providing a networking platform for Academia and Business ON Helix 2017 will feature:

• • • • • • •

Welcome Reception Plenary Presentations and Panel Debates 300+ delegates from across the Life Science and Healthcare Industry 30+ international exhibitors Prescheduled one to one meetings Summer BioNewsRound Award Finals Special Academic Rate - contact nadia@onenucleus.com for details

Wellcome Genome Campus Conference Centre onhelix.com | Join in the conversation #ONHelix2017

New Members Corporate Patron Company Ltd

•

4N GeneHealth Limited

•

Agenus UK Limited

•

LabKey (UK) Ltd

•

Allema International Limited

•

Meomics Limited

•

Apollo Therapeutics LLP

•

M-Files

•

Arithmos s.r.l

•

Mills and Reeve LLP

•

Artios Pharma Limited

•

Milvus Healthcare Consulting Ltd

•

AstriBio Limited

•

New Path Molecular Research

•

Camallergy

•

Cambridge Agile Solutions

•

NGS Pipeline

Limited

•

Nuclera Nucleics Ltd.

•

Cambridge Biolabs Limited

•

Open Audience Ltd

•

Carmichael Fisher (Life Sciences)

•

Owlstone Medical Ltd

•

CN Bio Innovations

•

PCI Clinical Services

•

Credos Consulting Limited

•

PHG Foundation

•

Cyclogenix

•

Precision NanoSystems UK

•

DLRC Ltd

•

Don Powell Associates Ltd

•

Premier Workplace Services

•

DRG Consultancy Ltd

•

Propath UK Ltd

•

Enplas (Europe) Limited

•

Samanchia Ltd

•

GalenAuxi Ltd

•

Scalized International Ltd

•

Greater Cambridge Greater

•

SynbiCITE

Peterborough Enterprise

•

Talking Medicines Limited

Partnership (LEP)

•

Target to Treatment Consulting

Corporate Sponsors

Limited

Ltd

•

Ideagen

•

In Tandem Limited

•

TCRS

•

innoFund Innovation Funding

•

The Milner Therapeutics Institute and Consortium

Advisors AB •

IN-PART

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Tier 2 Consulting Ltd

•

JLC Biopharma Consulting

•

Twigkit

•

Juneberry Limited

•

Williamson Biotech Solutions

•

Jupiter Diagnostics Holding

•

Yusen Logistics UK

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The One Nucleus ON Highlights is written by individuals and is not necessarily a reflection of the views held by One Nucleus.