Research Spin-Outs
ICaMB is part of a Bioscience Enterprise which underpins Newcastle’s ‘Science City’ status, designated by the Government. We have an excellent track record for producing spin-out companies from our research. A number of these are going from strength to strength:
- Prof AR Hawkins was one of the founders of Arrow Therapeutics Ltd., established in 1998, which discovers and develops antivirals. In 2007 Arrow Therapeutics Ltd. was purchased by AstraZeneca.
- Prof J Errington FRS, FMedSci was the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Prolysis Ltd, an antibacterial drug discovery company with two new classes of compounds in preclinical development. In November 2009 Prolysis was acquired by Biota Holdings Ltd, the listed Australian company that developed the anti-flu compound Relenza. Prolysis now operates under the name Biota Europe Ltd, and Jeff is a member of the Board of Directors of the parent company.
- Prof J Errington FRS, FMedSci is also the founder and Scientific Director of Demuris Ltd, which exploits a unique collection of actinomycete bacteria to search for new natural product drugs against a wide range of conditions, especially antibiotics.
- Prof JH Lakey is scientific director and founder of Orla Protein Technologies a bio-nanotechnology company. In 2002, Orla was one of the winners in the BBSRC Biosciences Business Award and has received 2 DTI Innovation Awards.
- Prof C Harwood founded and directs BioNE2t, a leading biotech organisation that aims to stimulate academic/industrial interactions by staging conferences and networking events in flagship areas of biotechnology.
- Prof SJ Yeaman was co-founder of Xcellsyz Ltd, a biotech company that developed the use of conditionally-immortalised human cells for drug discovery. The assets of Xcellsyz were purchased by Cambrex in 2004.
