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Commercializing Life Sciences: UK experience

Commercializing Life Sciences: UK experience. John McCulloch PhD Venture Group Advisor MaRS Discovery District. Personal Story. Post-doc at UCL Medical School, London, UK Licensed monoclonal antibodies to US company Negotiation, license and transfer process Impressions

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Commercializing Life Sciences: UK experience

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  1. Commercializing Life Sciences: UK experience John McCulloch PhD Venture Group Advisor MaRS Discovery District

  2. Personal Story • Post-doc at UCL Medical School, London, UK • Licensed monoclonal antibodies to US company • Negotiation, license and transfer process • Impressions • Ease of funding vs. grant system • Calculation of value and royalty rates • Seeing our work make a difference in the outside world • UK academic culture re. commercialization

  3. Out of the lab • Drug Royalty Corporation in 1994 (DRI Capital) • $1.0 billion under management • Life sciences investor – acquires royalties on drugs, diagnostics, etc. • Security = due diligence • Reviewed hundreds of opportunities, many arising from academic labs in the US and UK • Joined MaRS in 2007

  4. MaRS • MaRS is an international convergence centre based in Toronto • Our mission is to create successful global businesses built from Canada’s science and technology • We provide advisory services, entrepreneurship programs, conference space and office/lab facilities • Wide range of tenants at MaRS: startups to Merck • Recently launched MaRS Innovation • Will commercialize innovations from 16 Toronto institutions • Will select most promising inventions and provide funding for patent prosecution and pre-investment development (POP and “de-risking”)

  5. UK Funding for Life Sciences • Government • Medical Research Council • $1.0 billion R&D 2007-8 • 130 patent families • $152 million license revenue in 2007-8 • Private • Wellcome Trust ($23 billion endowment) • Charities • Cancer Research UK • Arthritis Rheumatism Campaign • National Heart Research Fund • Diabetes UK

  6. BTG plc • National Research Development Corporation (1948) • Mission: to commercialize publicly funded research • Fused with National Enterprise Board in 1981 to create the British Technology Group (BTG) • BTG became custodian of many NRDC assets • 1992 – management buyout • 1995 – LSE flotation = BTG plc • Major BTG assets = MRI, BeneFIX, Campath • Initially “de-risked” technologies and licensed out • Evolved to product development focus

  7. Medical Research Council (MRC) • Founded in 1913 • Numerous landmark discoveries: • Influenza virus • Penicillin • DNA • Link between smoking & lung cancer • Monoclonal antibodies • C. elegans genome • 35 MRC institutes across UK

  8. MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology • Founded in 1947 (Cambridge, UK) • 13 Nobel laureates • Basic molecular biology research led to a wealth of antibody technologies: • Monoclonal antibodies (Milstein & Kohler, 1975) • NRDC did not file patents! • Chimeric antibodies (Neuberger & Rabbits 1984) • Humanized antibodies (Winter 1986) • Human antibodies (Winter 1990s) • Human antibody genome mice (Neuberger 1990s) • Single domain antibodies (Winter & Tomlinson 2000)

  9. Approved Products • Humira (Abbott) • RA, Crohn’s, psoriasis • US$1.54 billion sales • Tysabri (Biogen Idec) • MS • Actemra (Roche/Chugai) • RA • Campath (Genzyme/Bayer) • lymphoma, RA • Vectibix (Amgen) • Colorectal cancer

  10. Company Formation • Celltech • acquired by UCB ($2.25 billion) • Cambridge Antibody Technology • acquired by AstraZeneca ($1.25 billion) • Domantis • acquired by GlaxoSmithKline ($411 million) • Licenses to 37 other companies • MRC-LMB has played a critical role in the development of powerful, selective drugs for autoimmune disease and cancer

  11. Proceeds to MRC • 2000-2006 • Humanized antibodies = $150 million • Human antibodies = $227 million • MRC-sourced antibody products are still growing • Humira is a blockbuster drug • >$1.5 billion sales/year • MRC uses the revenues from antibody technology to support basic research and expand research infrastructure

  12. Lessons • The UK has been extremely successful in life sciences commercialization based on top tier research • If you can’t patent an initial technology, keep innovating! • LMB created five next generation technologies after mABs • Get the technology out in the field as widely as possible via non-exclusive licenses • Reinvest the proceeds in basic research • Main driver of innovation in MRC-LMB case • Importance of angels

  13. John McCulloch PhD 416-673-8127 jmcculloch@marsdd.com

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