MRC Technology to join innovation network at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst
Relocation of MRC Technology\'s drug discovery unit starts next step in campus growth
MRC Technology, a life science technology transfer organisation, has decided to relocate its drug discovery activities to the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst campus.
Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) is the UK's first open innovation bioscience campus. The move forms an important part of MRC Technology's evolution and sees its Centre for Therapeutics Discovery become the cornerstone tenant in SBC's Accelerator building.
Equipping the facilities is expected to start shortly, with completion and relocation by 2015.
In choosing the new location for its laboratories, MRC Technology said it was attracted by the innovation network developing at SBC and the opportunity it offers to collaborate with universities, charities, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
MRC Technology undertook an extensive search to find the right environment for its further development, as it is expected that the current site, adjacent to the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London, will be decommissioned by the end of 2016.
Co-located with GlaxoSmithKline on the Stevenage campus, SBC is a joint venture between the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills, GlaxoSmithKline, the Wellcome Trust and the Technology Strategy Board. It has more than 25 tenants.
Our move to Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst provides us with a fantastic opportunity to increase and strengthen the small molecule and therapeutic antibody engineering development work
MRC Technology's Centre for Therapeutics Discovery, which has around 70 staff, identifies and develops novel small molecule and antibody targets generated by academia and research charities, with the aim of creating effective new drug candidates.
From its inception in 2000, MRC Technology has helped launch 12 drugs, form 18 start-ups and generated over £600m in royalty revenues. At SBC, it will occupy around 23,000ft2 of laboratory and office space.
Dave Tapolczay, MRC Technology’s CEO, said: 'Our move to Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst provides us with a fantastic opportunity to increase and strengthen the small molecule and therapeutic antibody engineering development work that we do for academia, charities, biotech and pharma.
'It will help us realise our ambition to be a centre of excellence for translating drug targets into drugs with potential to move to the clinic, and we are looking forward to being part of the open innovation network at SBC.'