Spotlight on Oxfordshire

Industry Growth

The 1999 Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Biotechnology Clusters report singled out Oxfordshire as a leading centre of bioscience excellence, with an industry cluster of 50 companies. Three years on, the Oxfordshire bioscience cluster has doubled in size, comprising some 100-biotechnology companies of varying size and maturity, from start-up businesses to publicly listed companies such as Oxford Glycosciences (OGS), Oxford Biomedica, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, British Biotech and Evotec OAI. With a strong commitment from local and regional government to deliver growth and sustainability, Oxfordshire is positioned at the very heart of the UK's dynamic high-tech enterprise economy and forms one of Europe's leading bioscience regions.

Research Excellence

At the heart of the Oxfordshire bioscience cluster is a world-class university and research science base comprising the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, leading research hospitals like the John Radcliffe and other biotechnology research organisations such as the Medical Research Council (MRC) Radiobiology Institute and Wellcome Trust Human Genetics Centre.

The science base will be further enhanced by the construction of the £250 million diamond synchrotron light source, the largest scientific facility to be built in the UK for over thirty years, at the CLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, based next to Harwell International Business and Science Park. When completed in 2006, diamond will provide a world-leading scientific resource for Oxfordshire's bioscience community.

Business Enterprise

Facilitating the successful commercialisation of Oxfordshire's world-class scientific resources, and supporting the emergence of a dynamic and entrepreneurial bio business culture, the Oxfordshire bioscience community is served by an equally important cluster of some 80-sector related professional service companies. This community is complemented by a highly developed business angel and investment network, alongside innovative local organisations such as the DTI biotechnology incubator programme, Oxfordshire BiotechNet Ltdand Oxford Innovation, a countywide provider of business incubation facilities.

Science Location

Oxfordshire is ideally located within the UK and offers excellent transport links to London, Heathrow Airport, the Southeast and the Midlands.

Oxford Brookes University

Responding to rapid industry growth, Oxford Brookes University, the UK's leading new university, provides pioneering support for the Oxfordshire bioscience cluster both through the undergraduate biotechnology degree programme offered by the School of Biological and Molecular Science and the Business School Enterprise Centre programme, Developing Management Excellence. This is an innovative web-based management-training course for scientists, developed using a £600,000 grant from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).

Working in close collaboration with the Directorate of Research and Business Development, The School of Biological and Molecular Science and the Business School Enterprise Centre jointly coordinate the Bio Industry Centre, a unit that identifies and assists the commercial development of biological research within the University. This work has already yielded two potential spin-out companies: Oxford Expression Technologies (OET) and Smart Brewing Services.

Oxford Bioscience Network Launched in 1999 by UK Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation, Lord Sainsbury, the Oxfordshire Bioscience Network (OBN) is an innovative public-private paertnership supported by local government and business partners. The Network facilitates knowledge and information exchange across the Oxfordshire bioscience cluster and beyond.

Organising regular networking events, liasing with key sector organisations and service providers, and closely monitoring the growth and development of the Oxfordshire biotechnology cluster, the Network provides the window on the Oxfordshire bioscience community and epitomises the unique partnership of the public and private sectors across Oxfordshire that has formed its dynamic and leading bioscience sector.

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University of Oxford

Oxford Universityis one of Europe's most innovative and entrepreneurial universities, a major life sciences centre with a strong track record of industrial collaboration. Its Department of Biochemistry is one of the largest in Europe and a leader in its field, as is its Department of Chemistry. Oxford is also home to the Centre for Environmental Biotechnology, which is developing biological science and associated process engineering to address environmental problems, and to a new Faraday Partnership for Remediation of the Polluted Environment.

Drawing on an 800-year tradition of discovery and invention, modern Oxford leads the way in creating jobs, wealth, skills and innovation for the 21st century. In the UK, Oxford is the leading university for commercial spin-out companies, with half of its spin-outs to date being bioscience-related, and a pioneer in developing a university intellectual property policy.

Isis Innovation LTD

The University of Oxford has established its wholly-owned technology transfer company, Isis Innovation, to help those researchers who wish to commercialise the results of their research.

The University assigns its intellectual property to Isis (where there are no pre-existing exploitation arrangements) and Isis then evaluates, protects, and markets the intellectual property. Isis provides researchers with commercial advice, funds patent applications and legal costs, and negotiates exploitation and spin-out company agreements. Filing on average one patent application each week and managing over 300 patent application families, Isis seeks to license technologies to companies to develop and sell technology based products. Isis has also assisted in the formation of 28 University spin-out companies since 1997, generating significant value in equity holdings for the University of Oxford. The combined value of the spin-out companies has reached £2 billion, using quoted market capitalisations and investor valuations for unquoted companies, and it is estimated that Oxford's spin-out companies have created 3,000 jobs.

Set up with DTI funding under the Biotechnology Mentoring and Incubator Challenge, Isis has organised its BioForm activity to optimise the process of establishing new biotechnology companies. BioForm provides the skills necessary, together with a network of professionals, to put together thriving biotech companies.

The Isis Model

For further information on any aspect of Isis' work, please contact Jennifer Johnson, Marketing Administrator on telephone (01865) 280839 or e-mail jennifer.johnson@isis.ox.ac.uk

Spin-Out Success

A selection of Oxford's bio-related spin-out companies includes:

Pharminox Ltd (2002) - developing and exploiting a new family of platinum based anticancer compounds.

Inhibox Ltd (2001) - a drug discovery company that uses computational methods to discover new leads for drugs.

Oxford BioSignals Ltd (2000) - applying proven neural network technology from Oxford University to develop the next generation of patient monitors.

PharmaDM (2000) - developing data mining applications aimed at streamlining pharmaceutical and biotechnological drug discoveries.

Oxxon Pharmaccines Ltd (1999) - developing innovative therapeutic vaccines (pharmaccines) for the treatment of chronic infectious diseases and cancer.

Avidex Ltd (1999) - developing technologies to allow T-cell proteins to be produced as soluble and stable compounds, which can be used both as protein pharmaceuticals and for the discovery of new chemical entities.

SenseTherapeutic Ltd (1998) - developing and marketing novel technologies for reliable identification of "therapeutic targets" to reinforce and complement recent technological advances within the pharmaceutical industry.

Synaptica Ltd (1998) - developing therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Motor Neuron, and also a reliable diagnostic test for Alzheimer's Disease.

Business Liason

The University of Oxford's Business Liaison Unit (www.blu.ox.ac.uk) offers a gateway to the University, forging new links with regional businesses - particularly those in the high-tech sector - and facilitating both first contacts with the University and helping to extend existing links. The Unit's establishment underlines the University's commitment to playing a more prominent part in local economic development.

Dr Mark Bowman, Business Liaison Manager for the Life Sciences, will be able to put you in touch with the resources best suited to your needs and can be contacted on telephone (01865) 280864 or e-mailmark.bowman@blu.ox.ac.uk

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