Just four months into trading from its Nottingham UK base, XenoGesis Limited has exceeded its initial sales targets by more than 300%. The BioCity Nottingham contract research organisation began trading in early November and was providing laboratory-based drug analysis services to major global pharmaceutical clients from day one.
Started by former Associate Principal Scientist in drug metabolism & pharmacokinetics (DMPK) at AstraZeneca Dr Richard Weaver, the company has also attracted £135,000 investment to enable the purchase of laboratory and IT equipment and to support its marketing activities. The company already employs two senior scientists, Dr Manfred Ismair and Dawn Parkins who worked with Dr Weaver in AstraZeneca, and is set to take on an Associate research scientist in April.
The encouraging sales achievements are the result of several international visits as well as Dr Weaver’s considerable reputation in the pharmaceutical sector. XenoGesis specialises in pre-clinical drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), quantitative bioanalysis and expert interpretation. Their laboratory tests demonstrate how the human body might affect the way a drug behaves. Backing this up with advice on how to modify the chemical structure of a compound to make it more ‘drug-like’ makes the XenoGesis service attractive to global drug companies.
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5th November 2010
Haemostatix Ltd, a biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has received a £409,000 Translation Award from the Wellcome Trust to support development of its innovative haemostat technology. The funding coincides with an additional £459,000 investment from Spark Ventures, Catapult Venture Managers, NESTA, the Lachesis Fund and Leicester University as well as new investor, Mobius Life Sciences Fund.
Haemostats are used by surgeons to manage problematic bleeding and to reduce time in the operating theatre during surgery. The products are applied in the form of sprays, gels or pads, and typically contain the enzyme thrombin, which promotes blood clotting, as the active ingredient.
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Posted in Science on 12 October 2010 at 1:00 pm by David Bradley
Lucy Marcus is the Founder and CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting, Ltd, a company that endeavours to foster sustainable success for funding organisations. She is non-executive chair of the Mobius Life Sciences Fund and chair of the audit committee for BioCity Nottingham. As the Science is Vital campaign steps up a gear and British scientists brace themselves for funding cut announcements from government, Lucy Marcus talked to David Bradley about the downside to science spending cuts
You have quite a broad range of current positions, what 2-3 word phrase would you use to describe yourself professionally speaking?
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There are vast, untapped opportunities to start up and develop life science companies across the UK according to a new report, UK Life Science Start-up Report 2010 published on Wednesday 22nd September by Mobius Life Sciences Fund and BioCity Nottingham. The report helps to identify these opportunities and calls for any public investment to be better targeted at four UK ‘hot spots’. It also highlights opportunities for investors in the sector across the UK.
The UK Life Science Start-up Report 2010 is the first comprehensive study of early stage life science firms and specifically looks at the levels of University spin-out activity, the geographic spread of early-stage and subsequent investments, the role of bio-business incubators and the likely opportunities presented by the re-structuring of the global pharmaceutical industry.
Author of the report and CEO of BioCity, Dr Glenn Crocker will present these findings and make recommendations at the gathering of industry experts, government officials and the press at The British Library in London. Dr Crocker is joined by a panel of experts including Lucy P. Marcus, CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting and Chair of the Mobius Life Sciences Fund; Dr Will West, CEO CellCentric; Dr David Hardman, CEO Birmingham Science Park Aston; Mark Warne, Partnership Director IP Group; and Dean Slagel, MD Esperante Ventures.
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This letter appeared in the Financial Times on 13 September 2010
From Ms Lucy P. Marcus.
Sir, The recommendation from Vince Cable that science research should abandon work that is “neither commercially useful nor theoretically outstanding” (News digest, September 8) as part of the UK’s austerity drive has sparked a vital conversation. I believe investment in blue skies research remains essential. It cannot be consigned to the scrapheap to meet short-term cost-cutting measure. We must not abdicate our future simply because not all scientific discovery can be immediately quantified in its commercial value.
Read the article on the FT
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