Six brand
new companies started by former AstraZeneca Charnwood employees will create a
total of 15 jobs within BioCity Nottingham by the end of November this year,
contributing to the total of 35 new jobs created at BioCity out of the global
pharmaceutical giant's closure of the East Midlands' site. In addition, top
scientists leaving Pfizer in Sandwich are starting to enquire about BioCity
support with the first virtual tenant recently confirmed.
Back in
March 2010, BioCity Nottingham, Europe's fastest-growing bioscience business
incubator, responded immediately to the closure plans of the AstraZeneca site
in Charnwood, Leicestershire, by offering a package of support to its employees
that included training, advice and help with office or lab accommodation.
As a direct result, the new ventures will all be up and running in BioCity
within the next month.
Dr Glenn
Crocker, Chief Executive of BioCity Nottingham says: "We're delighted
that these new businesses have chosen BioCity as their first home. We've
been working with them over the past year and I'm pleased that the
support they've had has not only helped them through a difficult time, but also
given them access to what we hope will be an exciting and successful future."
Already up
and running within BioCity is BAST Inc, founded by former Global Discipline
Lead for Pharmacometrics at AstraZeneca, Dr Joachim Grevel. Joachim (56),
from Shepshed, saw an opportunity to branch out on his own and was told that
BioCity was the only place to be if he was thinking of starting up in the
bioscience sector. The central location and start-up package also helped
persuade him to choose the site as the launch pad for his new enterprise.
Also on site
is Sarah Hill (47), a former Clinical Researcher at AstraZeneca, who has
launched her company, Genios Limited, following a year of BioCity support which
begun with a place on the renowned three-day Bio-Entrepreneur School.
Sarah says
the BioCity support helped her to focus at a time when her future looked pretty
bleak. "I've since received invaluable support with branding and
intellectual property issues and gained advice from the many events on
offer. As a BioCity tenant, I know that on-going expert business support
services coupled with access to first-class meeting room facilities will be
invaluable to Genios in its early growth stages."
Former
Associate Principal Scientist in drug metabolism & pharmacokinetics
(DMPK) at AstraZeneca, Dr Richard Weaver (41) from Loughborough, is moving his
team of four into BioCity from early November and believes it is an ideal place
to launch and grow his business, XenoGesis Limited. "I read about the
support being offered following the AstraZeneca R&D Charnwood closure
announcement and over the past year I've received fantastic advice and
encouragement from the BioCity team. The highly reputable address, the
support infrastructure, the access to shared facilities such as the Biotel
laboratory and being close to so many other innovative companies in the sector
means that XenoGesis will have the best start and I'm really excited about its
future."
Dr Gary
Allenby (49) and his team of four are establishing Aurelia Bioscience, a
pre-clinical biology-based screening company at Biocity. He said "Biocity
has been instrumental in providing a framework for guiding our entrepreneurial
efforts. Using Biocity funding we employed a venture champion to focus our
ideas and knowledge into a well considered business proposal. Furthermore
Biocity have offered us excellent premises to begin trading from. This will
help us to establish our laboratory facilities as quickly as possible and hit
the ground running."
Early
November will see the arrival of Julie Corfield who, as former R&D Biobank
Head at Charnwood, will take on the helm of Areteva Ltd, a consultancy for
biobanking, biomedical research and clinical drug development.
Julie says she was attracted to Biocity's reputation as a
well-recognised facility for R&D start-ups in Nottingham. "I
wanted to be in a working environment with an infrastructure more akin to what
I have been used to rather than work from home or in an isolated office.
I believe this kind of infrastructure is important when you're starting up, to
provide stability and to be able to concentrate on the business at hand. The
meeting room facilities, security, IT capability and professionally managed
reception for visitors will be a great help to us in our early phase."
Julie, who
was previously employed by Boots and worked in the R3 building on the BioCity
site in the early 80's, added: "I also see it as an opportunity to extend my
professional network and potentially broaden my horizons outside my usual
sphere of operations."
Pharmaceutical
consultant, Dr Jenny Walsh (44) from Nottingham is another AstraZeneca employee
who found the Bio-Entrepreneur School invaluable and a perfect introduction to
the many aspects of launching a successful business. Now a BioCity
‘virtual tenant' Jenny says that one of the key benefits is the opportunity to
network and share ideas with others.
"Having
the option to work from the site and be around like-minded people relieves
potential isolation that you can feel when working alone from home." she
said. "The use of the Library area and the ability to use meeting rooms
is also valuable in relation to meeting potential clients." she said.
Former
Pfizer scientist Dr Karen Spink has become the latest virtual tenant at
BioCity. Her new venture with The Research Network (TRN) offers in-depth
scientific expertise in drug discovery and pre-clinical development to manage
and advise on outsourced research strategy. TRN look forward to contributing to
the BioCity community and benefitting from the specialist advice and support
offered by the bioscience business incubator.
The
AstraZeneca Charnwood facility will finally close its doors at the end of this
year and the future for the Pfizer site in Sandwich remains uncertain.
Dr Crocker added: "Despite the tragedy of the AZ and Pfizer
closures, these bioscience experts are now set to remain in the UK and they
will hopefully build substantial businesses in their own right, to rank
alongside the other success stories at BioCity. We wish them every
success for the future."
Watch the video on the BBC News website
About
BioCity
BioCity
Nottingham provides business support, finance, labs & offices to
bioscience, pharmaceutical, med-tech & healthcare companies. It
operates one of Europe's largest bioscience business centres, which is
currently home to nearly 70 fast-growing companies, including R&D and
business support services.
BioCity
invests in early stage life science companies through its subsidiary, Mobius
Life Sciences (launched in October 2009), which is the first investment fund in
the Midlands region dedicated to the life sciences sector.
www.mobiuslifesciences.com
For a copy
of the 2010 UK Life Science Start-up Report published by BioCity and Mobius
Life Sciences go to
http://mobiuslifesciences.com/report