Spin out companies
Spin out companies with a link to MRC research
The spin out companies reported in MRC e-Val ranged in mission from those with the aim of developing a new pharmaceutical product, those that are focussed on developing research equipment, to those marketing reagents, services or expertise.
The companies also ranged in developmental stage from pre-investment (at least four companies), to those that had completed several rounds of investment.
The large variation in types of company and developmental stages highlights that it is difficult to determine common metrics for this activity. Venture capital investment, or floatation on the stock exchange is often cited as a measure of impact [1]. However several of the companies are already successfully funding their operations from sales, without the need for further rounds of investment, making this measure less relevant. Employment is also seen as a measure of success, although several of the companies listed are “soft companies” providing expert consultancy, or were vehicles for licensing intellectual property, rather than conducting research themselves. We need to recognise this variety in contribution, and the importance of different approaches to bridging the innovation gap [2]. Our approach is to take an interest in all aspects of these companies and encourage researchers to provide information which will allow us to better understand the very significant contribution this activity makes to the economy.
We know that there are companies with a strong link to MRC research that are not reported via MRC e-Val. The main reason for this is that no researcher with a link to the company is present in our survey population. Therefore we separately compiled a list of companies that we know to have had a strong link to MRC research (Table 2). This added 10 companies to the list. In the period we are interested in, Gendaq and Domantis have been bought by larger companies (Sangamo, and GSK respectively), and Avidis, Etiologics, Innovata and Ribotargets have merged with other companies to become Imaxia, Argenta Discovery, Vectura and Vernalis respectively. Iclectus, Senexis, Renovo, and Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) continue, and in the case of OGT and Renovo in particular are making strong contributions to the UK economy.
[1] The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration (HM Treasury, 2003)
In 2006 it was estimated that there were almost 1,250 employees in MRC start-up companies (not including Celltech Group, by then part of UCB Pharma), however with a number of mergers and acquisitions underway it became difficult to continue to track the contribution that MRC funded discoveries were making to employment within these larger organisations. We have incomplete information regarding employment across the currently active and independent companies, and so we aim to improve this over the next year. However it is known that in total Renovo, Heptares, Synairgen, and Summit, all relatively new spin out companies, now employ around 200 staff.
Spin out company details
Reference |
Name of company |
MRC contribution via |
Date of formation |
1 |
MRC LMB |
2007 | |
2 |
Southampton |
2003 | |
3 |
Oxford |
2003 | |
4 |
MRC LMB |
2009 | |
5 |
Imperial College |
2006 | |
6 |
MesoLens Ltd |
MRC LMB |
2009 |
7 |
MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit/Dundee |
2009 | |
8 |
Newcastle |
2008 | |
9 |
Phagenesis Ltd |
Manchester |
2007 |
10 |
UCL |
2001 | |
11 |
Birmingham |
Not known | |
12 |
Pro-Cure Therapeutics Ltd |
York |
2001 |
13 |
Dundee |
2006 | |
14 |
Edinburgh |
2008 | |
15 |
Liverpool |
2009 | |
16 |
CRUK |
2009 | |
17 |
Nottingham |
2008 | |
18 |
Nottingham |
2006 | |
19 |
Bristol/Cardiff/Kings College/Manchester |
2004 | |
20 |
York |
2004 | |
21 |
Imperial College |
2000 | |
22 |
York |
2005 | |
23 |
Oxford |
2009 | |
24 |
Oxford |
2003 | |
25 |
MRC LMB |
2005 | |
26 |
Thiakis Ltd |
Imperial College |
2002 – 2008 (bought by Pfizer) |
27 |
MRC NIMR |
1994-2002 (bought by Topotarget) | |
28 |
Durham |
2008 | |
29 |
Sophos Therapeutics |
NRC LMB |
2008 |
30 |
SubZepto Associates Consulting |
NIMR |
2008 |
Data added from sources other than MRC e-Val | |||
31 |
Imaxio (formerly Avidis) |
MRC NIMR/Cambridge |
2000-2006 (merger formed Imaxio) |
32 |
MRC LMB |
2000-2006 (bought by GSK) | |
33 |
Etiologics |
MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit |
2002-2004 Merged with Argenta, research programme now continued as Pulmagen |
34 |
Gendaq Ltd |
MRC LMB |
1999 – 2001 |
35 |
Iclectus Ltd |
MRC LMB |
2002 |
36 |
Innovata Ltd (now owned by Vectura |
||
37 |
Ribotargets |
MRC LMB |
1997-2003 (merger formed Vernalis) |
38 |
Manchester/Cambridge |
2001 | |
39 |
Oxford |
1995 | |
40 |
Manchester |
1998 | |
41 |
Oxford |
2005 | |
42 |
Cambridge Genetics |
Cambridge |
Prior to 2000 (became Cambridge drug discovery and then acquired by Biofocus) |
43 |
Oxford |
1999 (Acquired by Oxford Biomedica in 2007) | |
44 |
MRC LMB |
2005 | |
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