Bioscience base attracts business

A major investment from two leading Midlands universities, a regional development agency grant in 2002 and an extremely generous donation by BASF laid the foundations for an international flagship bioscience development. Graham Lampard reports.

BioCity Nottingham is a groundbreaking healthcare, bioscience and incubation centre in the East Midlands region of England, widely recognised as having the potential to become one of Europe's largest biotech bases. The former Boots site in the centre of Nottingham is being redeveloped thanks to initial funding from the city, regional organisations and prominent figures in the community, including the vice-chancellors of the two Nottingham universities.

Forged by a consortium of East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA), Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham, the complex was created in an r&d facility donated to Trent University by BASF in 2002. 'BASF's aim was to catalyse the underdeveloped opportunities that exist within the bioscience and biotechnology sectors,' said BioCity chief executive, Glenn Crocker. 'Everyone recognises that there is a lot of good research going on and great opportunities, but the UK biotech industry is not where it should be.'

multi-sized

At the end of 2002, BioCity Nottingham was formed as an independent, not-for-profit company to kick-start these businesses and refurbish the site. Whereas building from scratch would have required in excess of £25m, less than £5m has been spent on refurbishment work and running costs for the first few years.

The site has four main buildings; the first has been set up to cater for early stage companies. 'One of the first barriers we needed to overcome was the lack of suitable space for small companies - one up from virtual companies - which made it difficult for them to establish themselves,' Crocker commented.

There are currently almost 30 companies on site, ranging from 1- or 2-man start-ups in r&d, to organisations that are non-r&d, non-wet labs, such as patent agents and venture capitalists. There is also the NHS innovation hub - responsible for developing and commercialising ideas and products from the NHS - which moved from the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham.

'The site is a powerful melting pot for ideas,' said Crocker. 'Only recently a company that makes peptides moved in and bumped into another resident company in the corridor. They got talking and by the end of the day they had a contract to supply peptides.'

Other recent arrivals include OncImmune, which is developing a method of providing early diagnosis of cancer; asthma products provider, Trudell Medical; and Scancell, an established spin-off from Nottingham University that moved to BioCity in April 2004. The company secured significant investment at the end of 2003 and could be just three years away from launching new products to complement chemotherapy in treating cancer patients.

A second building, which was the chemistry building when BASF was on site, includes a GMP facility for dry products. BioCity is looking to develop this by adding a sterile manufacturing plant and nine chemistry laboratories, each containing eight fume hoods.

'Conveniently it's divided up into neat units, making it ideal for the development of early stage chemistry companies,' noted Crocker. Sygnature Chemical Services and Pepceuticals, are likely to be the first incumbents.

The site has a third, multi-storey building that could be used for additional start-up companies or to grow small companies currently located in the first building. 'We could have four companies there, each with about 100 people, who would have their own identities separate from BioCity and wouldn't have far to move,' said Crocker. 'There's also a fourth building, an old textile mill, that could be redeveloped for medical technology businesses.' However, this is a longer-term option.

regeneration

There are a number of organisations based at BioCity who exist to develop links. For instance, MediLink is a networking-based organisation that was set up to stimulate the growth of the healthcare sector in the East Midlands. Catapult, manager of the East Midlands Regional Venture Capital Fund, now has its base at BioCity, putting it at the centre of some of the companies it hopes to invest in, while a collaborative application from two tenants secured a key government grant for pioneering medical work by BioCity tenant BioTranSys. With help from technology commercialisation expert Brand New Ventures, the company won a DTI grant to help it create a viable business plan to market contamination-proof blood clotting treatments and revolutionary gel-based wound treatments.

With break-even expected in the short term, BioCity will be able to start putting money back into the regional industry in just a few years.

The centre has received funding from EMDA, the DTI, the Government Office for East Midlands, European Regional Development Fund, Greater Nottinghamshire Partnership and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Additionally, there is a network of specialist business advisers - including Eric Potter Clarkson, Eversheds, Grant Thornton, HSBC, Natwest, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Shoosmiths - that have pledged their support for BioCity and the region's bioscience businesses.