TECHNOLOGY-BRITAIN: Strong Push for Biotech Research in London

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Samanta Sen

LONDON, Jul 30 2001 (IPS) - The mapping of the human genome has led to a flood of research in London that is seeing a string of new companies do their bit to turn man into superman.

It is not fantasy any more. Based on the genome many companies have already made more progress in months than generations of scientists before them. London is looking to take place as pioneer in the new research.

London’s difficulty, researchers say, is that it is not finding enough laboratory space for new companies entering the field week after week. The old push on military technology is on the decline in Britain; the buzzword now is biotechnology. The target is the wealthy individual.

“Everyone wants to live longer, healthier and in a nice environment,” says Sue Charles from The Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research. The new research, she said, will create new medicines that help people do just that. “That is a desire in all of us to which biotechnology can contribute,” she told IPS.

Ken Powell, chief executive officer of Arrow Therapeutics says biotechnology research offers promising profits. “Drug development offers far larger rewards than technology platforms,” he told IPS.

The company is currently experimenting with a fast-acting antibiotic that would tackle an infection within hours.

Sue Charles says her institute is on to “a potential block- buster discovery in the breast cancer area and a very exciting pre- clinical programme for brain tumours.” Much of the new research is working with data on the human genome, which is published free on the Internet.

Over the last year 55 new companies have come up in London. “We are creating lab facilities for four new developments,” says Simon Tarpey, Director of the London Biotechnology Network, a government and business funded group, which is leading the development of biotech research in London.

“We are working to gather information on what’s happening in the field, and trying to bring companies together,” he said.

The current push in London is part of a keen three-way competition between Britain, Germany and the U.S. “Germany has more biotech companies but at present more than half of Europe’s biotech products come from Britain and Ireland, and almost half of Europe’s top 100 biotech companies are British,” says Sue Charles.

Europe is way behind the U.S. in the new research. There are 1,570 biotech companies in Europe and 1,270 in the U.S. but the average revenue of a European company is about 6 million dollars, less than a third of the average in the U.S., says Charles.

The biggest biotech company in the U.S., Amgen alone, is almost the same size as the whole of European biotech. “U.S. is prepared to back biotech with big bucks,” says Charles. “Europe drip-feeds its industry.”

British institutions plan to accelerate research rapidly over coming months to set them ahead in the game. “There is plenty of money around for this research,” says Powell. “Venture capitalists are finding it hard to find somewhere to invest.”

Proposals for new research are coming fast now from seed companies launched by scientists who have left big companies to set up on their own, says Powell. That is leading to a “biotech boom” in London, he says.

Increasingly, British universities are being invited to join business in new research.

A small 6 million dollars Bloomsbury Bioseed Fund has been launched to help British scientists commercialise their scientific discoveries. The fund will provide money through London University which sees biotech as “one of the hottest areas for company growth”.

Fundmanager Dr Stephane Mery said the aim is to “maximise returns on different discoveries, because creating a business in academia is not as alien as it seems”. The fund is not a research grant, he said. It is there to make business happen.

It only illustrates a growing commercialisation on British campuses. King’s, Imperial and University Colleges have all established a number of wholly owned subsidiary companies to promote spin-out companies and technology transfer.

Peter Shephard, an academic from the University College London (UCL) has branched into business while remaining on the university staff. “You can put academic ideas into a product that has real value,” Shepherd told a meeting organised by UCL.

Shephard researched ways to immortalise human cells for treatment of diabetes. His company is now planning to take drugs straight to the clinic. This kind of research arising from the genome will revolutionise the world of medicine in about 20 years, says Shepherd.

The rewards are so promising that the research would be profitable even if just one in ten drugs succeeds, says Powell. British scientists are now getting scientists in other countries to work with them, he said.

Powell’s company’s located partly in Barcelona. It is collaborating with a company in Japan. And it is talking to scientists in India for more collaboration.

“You will see more and more of this sort of thing happening,” he said. Britain is emerging as a major centre also for clinical trials. About 60 per cent of all clinical trials in Europe are carried out in the Britain.

At present about half a billion dollars a year is being spent on biotechnology research in London. This figure is set to rise sharply, says Tarpey. Britain is speeding up in the race.

TECHNOLOGY-BRITAIN: Strong Push for Biotech Research in London

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Samanta Sen

LONDON, Jul 30 2001 (IPS) - The mapping of the human genome has led to a flood of research in London that is seeing a string of new companies do their bit to turn man into superman.
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