Research funded by MRC has led to spin-out companies with an economic value of greater than £6.1 billion. This has created more than 3,800 jobs and attracted £10.2 billion of external investment, according to new analysis published today.
Independent evaluation
The report was conducted by independent evaluator Ipsos UK. It was commissioned to establish an overview of the investment and growth outcomes achieved by spin-outs that have been linked to intellectual property developed with MRC’s funding.
Commercialising technologies linked to MRC-funded research
Ipsos UK collected an initial dataset that included details of companies established to commercialise technologies linked to MRC-funded research from 2008 to 2023.
One hundred and forty-six were linked to MRC’s translationally targeted research funding, established to speed up the transfer of research ideas into new interventions, and 195 to other MRC-funded research.
Billions in private sector investment
The report looked at the 206 spin-outs for which there was Pitchbook data. These companies accounted for around 34% of the total capital raised by spin-outs in the wider UK pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector founded between 2008 and 2023.
Collectively, £5.7 billion was secured in equity investment by those 206 companies, with 22 companies each attracting more than £50 million in investment. More than half (54%) established some level of external capital investment.
Leading the way with gene and cell therapies
The companies attracting the highest levels of investment were all active in the advanced therapies space. This included companies seeking to develop and commercialise gene and cell therapies, as well as other types of novel treatments, such as peptide-based therapeutics.
Most spin-outs were seeking to develop new therapeutics. This high-risk process requires significant volumes of capital to bring a product to market, and most companies do not generate revenues before being acquired by a larger pharmaceutical firm.
However, there were also a number of revenue-generating spin-outs that made significant economic contributions by commercialising diagnostic services and products. This included Perspectum, a developer of digital healthcare technologies, and NorthWest eHealth providing services to support the design and delivery of clinical trials.
Success of MRC’s translational strategy
The report’s findings indicate that spin-outs arising from MRC’s translationally targeted research funding have been highly successful. They have leveraged £5.30 of external investment from every £1 invested, by raising approximately £3.1 billion of external equity investment between 2008 and 2023, relative to £577 million in research funding committed.
These spin-outs also attract more external funding in total, and on average raise greater levels of funding, than those associated with all other MRC-funded research.
MRC accelerating research from discovery to prosperity
Professor Patrick Chinnery, Executive Chair of MRC, said:
MRC-funded research has led to the creation of a significant number of impactful spin-out companies.
Our funding has given rise to innovative medical treatments and technologies that underpin valuable intellectual property and new companies, collectively worth billions of pounds, targeted on improving the lives of people with diseases.
MRC’s ongoing strategic support for translational research is proving highly successful. We are progressing research from bench to bedside, from discovery to prosperity – supporting a healthier economy, as well as a healthier population.
Billions of pounds of impact from legacy spin-outs
The report also examined spin-outs associated with research funded prior to 2008. Although sources for these are less comprehensive, it revealed the spin-outs have attracted £4.5 billion in investment, with a handful of leading companies achieving globally significant commercialisation outcomes.
For example, Cambridge Antibody Technology was responsible for intellectual property that resulted in some of the best-selling drugs over the last two decades and £214 billion in global sales.
Although only recently receiving market authorisation, sales of immunotherapies and T-cell therapies developed by Adaptimmune are projected to generate up to $400 million annually. In 2023, the company earned $150 million in collaboration revenue to develop up to five new therapies for cancer.
Further information
Case studies
Cell therapy spin-out creates new manufacturing facility
Autolus was established to develop and commercialise advanced autologous T cell therapies that have the potential to deliver life-changing treatments to patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases.
The spin-out is founded on advanced cell programming technology developed with funding from MRC and others. It has raised £1.2 billion in external investment since it was established in 2014 and was valued at £259 million in May 2024.
The company has also invested in a 70,000ft2 manufacturing facility in the UK and employed 342 workers in 2022.
Multi-million-dollar projections for cell-therapy company
Adaptimmune was established in 2007 to develop its proprietary cell therapy platform, which engineers a patient’s own cells to fight cancer.
In August 2024, it was the first company to receive FDA approval for an engineered cell therapy for solid tumour cancers, afami-cel (marketed as Tecelra). Together with its other programmes, the company is projected to generate up to $400 million in annual sales.
A collaboration with Galapagos to develop and commercialise a therapy for head and neck cancer raised $70 million upfront, and a partnership with Genentech to develop T-cell therapies for up to five cancer targets raised $150 million upfront.
The company employs more than 400 workers, predominantly at its headquarters in Oxfordshire.
Transatlantic spin-out developing novel cancer therapies
Bicycle Therapeutics emerged from research undertaken by the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. It conceived and developed a new type of therapeutic based on bicyclic peptides, which can be used to create highly specific, highly stable drugs for cancer.
Founded in 2009, the spin-out raised £372 million in external funding by 2023, with plans for an additional £442 million in private investment.
The company is working in collaboration with Cancer Research UK, Genentech, Bayer and Novartis to develop and commercialise new therapeutics. It employs more than 260 people in sites across the UK and US, and was valued at £361 million in May 2024.
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