Following 25 years overseas working for multinational companies and Big 4 accounting firms, Graham Cook has returned to Kent to take up the position of Finance Director at Discovery Park.

Graham grew up in Canterbury but after working in London for several years, he moved to Australia where he spent 21 years in various senior roles at Ernst & Young, now EY; Aristocratic Leisure Ltd, an Australian listed global gaming and technology company; and Fuji Xerox Australia which is part of the FujiFilm Global Group. Graham, along with his wife and teenage daughter, moved to Auckland in 2018 to become the Chief Financial Officer and Director for FUJIFILM Business Innovation New Zealand.

 

Commenting on his appointment at the science and innovation park, Graham said: “The way Discovery Park has grown in recent years and is continuing to further invest is impressive, not only bringing in local life science companies and other businesses but also attracting talent from London and beyond.

“The organisation’s values align with my own – focused on people and a community spirit, there is an inspirational values-based leadership, a focus on customer quality and a mindset of continuous improvement and consideration for the environment. I’m looking forward to bringing my experience to the role, and teaming up with, supporting and challenging the senior leadership team to help Discovery Park meet its strategic goals.”

 

Mayer Schreiber, CEO of Discovery Park, said: “We’re very pleased to be able to attract someone with such extensive experience and I’m looking forward to working with Graham as we continue to work towards our ambition of becoming a world-leading science park in the next five years. Discovery Park is all about collaboration and learning from each other – something our tenants will testify to – so I can’t wait to see what we can gain from Graham’s insight .”

Graham also spent 16 years volunteering for the State Emergency Service in Australia, including as an Emergency Team Leader and Deputy Controller, followed by two years volunteering for the New Zealand Civil Defence (First Responders).

 

He and his family are now living in his childhood home in Canterbury, a short commute from Sandwich. Graham explained: “When the pandemic hit, New Zealand had extremely tight restrictions and it became very difficult, if not impossible, to visit family – including my wife’s elderly parents. We still had family in the UK so it seemed like a good time to return when we were able to. Seeking a role in London was an option but there was no need – Discovery Park has everything I was looking for.”

Discovery Park Ventures (DPV), the early stage life  sciences fund associated with Discovery Park, has made investments in two high-potential businesses, Ignota Labs and Oxford Medical Products. The funding, which  takes the number of companies in its portfolio to six, makes a significant contribution to the growth trajectory of both firms as they work towards their next milestones.  Established in 2022, DPV invests in novel and disruptive technology usually related to  Discovery Park’s focus areas¹ and has plans to expand to up to £25m.

Ignota Labs is helping drug developers navigate the toxicity landscape of drug  discovery with state-of-the-art scalable toxicity screening tools for the pharma and biotech industry. It provides insights across a range of toxicity problems, enabling  improved drug design optimisation from the start of the discovery process. The  company believes that proactive use of its technology has the potential to save the  industry significant amounts of time and billions of pounds each year via reduced  failure risk and creation of improved drug candidates. Also backed by Sustainable Ventures,  Ignota Labs has completed its first strategic partnership and is now raising a  £1.5m seed round.

 

Oxford Medical Products, led by CEO Dr Camilla Easter, has developed the novel weight-loss product Sirona. Excessive weight increases the risk of poor health and is estimated to cost the global economy over $2tn every year. Based on a proprietary  hydrogel and now in clinical trials, Sirona comprises a self-expanding pill which  occupies physical space in the stomach, reducing hunger and leading to significant  weight loss in a non-invasive way. In addition to Discovery Park Ventures, Oxford  Medical Products is backed by Ada Ventures, Nesta VC, Selvedge Venture and OION.

Sam Windsor, CEO of Ignota Labs, said, ‘We are delighted to be backed by Discovery  Park Ventures. Its team’s extensive experience of company building, business  development and fundraising will be invaluable to Ignota Labs as we create  partnerships around our toxicity screening technology and build our offering.’

Dr Camilla Easter, CEO of Oxford Medical Products, said, ‘Discovery Park Ventures  is a very welcome addition to our investor base. With Sirona in clinical trials this is an  exciting stage of development for Oxford Medical Products and we look forward to  working with the DPV team as we progress towards the market.’

Mayer Schreiber, Chairman of Discovery Park Ventures, said, ‘Although very different  businesses, Discovery Park Ventures is excited by the significant growth potential of  both Ignota Labs and Oxford Medical Products. We’re pleased to welcome them to the  DPV portfolio and network and look forward to helping them succeed.

Our new flexible laboratory facility is already filling up, with a healthy pipeline of interest from science companies looking to move in before the space is formally opened later in the summer.

 

Those currently in advanced discussions about taking space include intraocular lens implant specialists VisusNano; neurological therapy providers Optceutics, and life science consultancy firm Martin Warman.

 

A chronic shortage of suitable accommodation is severely restricting the UK’s life sciences industry, (Life Sciences 2030 report (bidwells.co.uk), curtailing both start-ups and scale-ups; however the new facility at Discovery Park’s 220 acre science and technology campus, which will officially be opened in June, offers spaces from 250 sq ft to 3,000 sq ft, allowing companies to scale up as required without the need to relocate as they expand.

 

Dr Joanna Gould, Chief Executive Officer, VisusNano, whose intraocular lens implant is set to revolutionise cataract surgery in humans and animals, said: “At a time when life sciences companies are struggling to find suitable lab space, having access to this new facility at Discovery Park has allowed VisusNano to scale up our operations, while still remaining on the site where we were already established.”

 

The new labs, which have been given a bespoke fit-up by Discovery Park’s on-site engineering team, come with a range of business support, including an on-site Barclay’s Eagle Lab providing a full package of growth services, including mentoring, investor readiness programmes and access to investors, including Discovery Park’s own seed fund – Discovery Park Ventures

 

The £6m capital project has been supported through the Government’s ‘Getting Building Fund’, with £2.75m of funding through South East LEP and Kent & Medway Economic Partnership, and there has been support too from Kent County Council.

 

Mayer Schreiber, CEO, Discovery Park, said: “The current critical shortage of R&D facilities is inflicting severe damage on the UK’s hopes of being a life sciences superpower. Without lab space, start-ups and university spin-outs are being denied any chance of developing their concepts beyond the early stages.

 

“If there is no pipeline of discovery, the science sector will stagnate and there will be no push towards manufacturing, which this country needs for future economic development.

 

“Discovery Park has been able to provide a new solution. The highly-priced ‘Golden Triangle’ is over-congested and companies can find it difficult to locate . At Discovery Park, we are able to offer flexible and affordable space which allows companies to grow in line with their business needs. And we’re already seeing a demand from interesting companies attracted by a viable alternative and our existing tenant base with ambitious growth aspirations”

 

Sarah Dance, Chair of South East LEP, said: “The new incubator space is an excellent example of a project that identified a clear business need, in this case high-quality laboratories and office space.

 

“Thanks to funding from Discovery Park and the South East LEP, it has been possible to develop an environment that nurtures the growth of high-value businesses, and create new jobs which will help us to build a strong and sustainable economy.”

 

Discovery Park has been identified by the Government as a Life Sciences Opportunity Zone, with established links to academia and a thriving scientific community.

 

Transport links and affordable housing have both been identified as factors influencing decision-making by employees working in the sector and at one hour by train from London’s bio-tech hub at St Pancras and with an average house price in Thanet of £353,500 (Zoopla), Discovery Park offers access to both, as well as an abundance of lifestyle advantages including good schools, leisure facilities, beaches and open countryside.

 

It is estimated that the new facility will create or safeguard up to 75 jobs.

This Saturday ( 11 February) marks International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and according to Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, which is holding an Assembly to mark the occasion, “We can all do our part to unleash our world’s enormous untapped talent – starting with filling classrooms, laboratories and boardrooms with women scientists.”

 

As someone who has worked in this sector for more than 20 years, I’ve seen some progress towards levelling up opportunities, but in many ways the obstacles are as significant as ever, with entrenched prejudices still preventing women in science from pursuing their full potential.

 

We know that female-led start-ups still receive just 1% of venture capital investment and that they may face the sort of probing about family circumstances and childcare commitments, to which men would never be subjected. No matter how strong the proposal, women continue to be judged by a different set of values.

 

Of course it is not all negative – when I first began attending conferences for senior science park executives I would be one of only a handful of women in the room. That’s no longer the case, but when I go to events aimed at promoting the role of women in science there’s still hardly a man to be seen.

 

Change won’t happen if we are only preaching to the converted; it will take a significant shift in entrenched attitudes before real progress can be made. And we do need change, not just for the sake of women themselves, but because by continuing to keep women out of senior roles in laboratories and the boardroom, life sciences is deprived of almost half of its talent and potential.

 

The challenges start early, with a failure to attract girls to study STEM subjects. There’s not enough knowledge out there about career paths, and parents and teachers remain unaware about the options that exist.

 

But that’s just the first obstacle. Encouraging women in science-based careers not to quit is also difficult, especially once they recognise that there is an 8.3% pay gap; that the route to the top is littered with obstacles and that combining work with childcare can be expensive and difficult.  A recent ‘Careers After Babies’ report, produced by That Works For Me revealed that only 24% of the women they surveyed had returned to work full time after having children and, of that number, 57% had subsequently left within two years. Meanwhile, their male colleagues whose careers remain uninterrupted, progress up the ladder towards the boardroom and those women who do remain are presumed to have less commitment because they have families, whereas in my experience they have a determination to prove themselves as well as excellent project-management skills. They know how to make every second count.

 

At Discovery Park we have joined up with schools in Kent to run Community Labs aimed at showing young people and girls in particular that science can be interesting and that it has important applications in everyday life, and we are also supporting Discovery Planet, an initiative set up by three female scientists in Ramsgate whose schools workshops are opened up to everyone at weekends, so that children, their parents and even their grandparents can have fun participating in scientific activities.

 

Meanwhile Discovery Park Ventures, which was established last year, has made a clear commitment to funding female-led ventures, including biotheraputics company BoobyBiome and Vitarka Therapeutics, which is delivering combination medicines using RNAi technologies for late-stage cancer patients.

 

Women aren’t just users and consumers of science, they also have the potential to be innovative creators and developers, effective leaders and powerful role models and on International Day of Women and Girls in Science it is worth asking ourselves why they still have to fight so hard just to get a seat at the table?

In the four years since it was founded, Logical Biological, which specialises in sourcing healthy and diseased human biological material such as serum, plasma, swabs, and saliva directly from donor centres and blood banks around the world, has established itself as a go-to company for diagnostic test developers.

Founder and managing director, James Steggles, set up the business after being persuaded by his family and friends to go it alone and put his years of industry experience to work.

With the need to operate from Containment Level 2 laboratory space, James identified Discovery Park after looking for an effective home for his start-up company, Logical Biological, with his search covering Kent and London.

Speaking from his office in Building 500, James said: “Discovery Park offered the space and the all-important containment facilities, and a welcoming approach that made it easy for us to choose to move here.

“Since establishing the company at Discovery Park we’ve grown quickly and already moved to bigger offices and labs twice, with another move onsite on the horizon.”

The company’s expertise has helped it establish a global network of partners to help source the human biological material needed by companies involved in the development of disease diagnosis testing.

Logical Biological’s aspiration is to be the company of choice for test developers to partner with their 12-strong team. A further three people are expected to join by the end of the year, maintaining it as one of the UK’s fastest growing companies.

James, who has a PhD in Biochemistry and years of experience in the industry, felt that there was an opportunity to establish a business that offered integrity, reliability and quality assurance.

 

“The development of high-quality tests, whether for allergies, auto-immune diseases, cancer, cardiology or infectious diseases, require reliable information gathered from high-quality human material. My experience while working in the industry was that the supply-chain too often failed. I knew that with the right attention to detail, we could do much better,” added James.

His confidence has been well-founded. The company now provides human biomaterial to many globally recognised names and often with multiple projects for each ongoing at any one time. Logical Biological’s approach and expertise is being put to good use by test developers involved in a wide range of clinical areas.

James added: “Covid-19 shone a light on the value of diagnostic tests and how they can support clinicians across many fields, which has stimulated demand for the materials we are perfectly placed to source and supply.

“Repeat business, referrals from existing customers and to potential new ones, has driven our growth. Seeing our work, which is at the start of the development of new tests, come to fruition with the tests being launched into the market, gives all of the team huge satisfaction, and drives us to be even better.”

 

Logical Biological has benefited from the talent pool that exists in Kent, and specifically in the Discovery Park area.

“The majority of the CVs we receive from potential team members inevitably mention Pfizer which demonstrates the quality of the skills on offer, and the local universities are delivering science graduates to the area.

“We’ve also benefitted from the community of like-minded companies here with shared values, with relationships nurtured by the team on site, and we have developed a strong partnership with at least one other firm at Discovery Park.”

Logical Biological’s offices within Building 500, with its testing and write-up space, put the team in amongst a community of high-growth companies, many of whom have started and flourished at Discovery Park.

 

James concluded: “Being among business owners and scientists who are open to collaborate here means that Discovery Park is a great environment in which to grow.

“I am delighted about how great the last four years have turned out. Our success has been built on doing things right through integrity and reliability and an extreme commitment to our customers.”

The team has also benefitted from the work-life balance offered by Discovery Park and living in Kent. James frequently commutes by train from Whitstable to Ramsgate and then cycles to work through Pegwell Bay nature reserve, with the sea air getting the day off to a great start.

For more information on the company visit logicalbiological.com

The last 12 months have been challenging on every front, from Covid recovery and soaring energy prices to the slump in investment in Life Sciences, while the Government’s decision on R&D tax credits has been the most recent blow to a sector whose huge potential is being thwarted by a shortage of lab space and a lack of funding.

Ahead of the recent review, the BIA urged the government to use a light hand when altering regimes as it believed that the then SME and large company R&D set ups worked well, and now in the light of the outcome it is continuing to review the implications of the changes.

Meanwhile, information shared at the Genesis 2022 life sciences conference in London showed a fall-off in biologics innovation, a steep drop in IPO financing and described the Biopharma market as ‘still in the dumps.’

But waiting for these issues to be resolved is not an option. Science parks must continue to innovate in order to sustain future growth. We are on the brink of being a global force in life sciences and biotechnology and we can’t let this opportunity slip away now.

So what can we do in 2023 that will bring our ambitions within reach? Well, we can start by collaborating.

By forging new links and making fresh connections we can build on our successes and overcome the obstacles in our path. It is only through pooling our knowledge and resources that we will be able to move research out of academia, into clinics and ultimately create effective treatments, to the benefit of patients, companies, science parks and the UK PLC.

At Discovery Park we describe ourselves as an ‘ecosystem’ and as a ‘community thriving on collaboration’. We provide facilities; access to business services and life sciences expertise; links with further and higher education; and we foster a network of tenants who are working collaboratively to achieve their goals; but that’s not all, we also look to the wider life sciences and biotech communities in order to establish relationships that will benefit those involved.

We have recently opened our Incubation Hub – 50,000 sq ft of wet labs and workspaces where start-ups can become established – and growing and supporting this community will be one of our major areas of focus in 2023.

Helping with this will be our new Barclays Eagle Lab, which is one of the largest co-working and incubator networks for start-ups and scale-ups in the UK, supporting entrepreneurs and ambitious businesses to collaborate, innovate and grow.

We will continue to expand focus beyond the Golden Triangle and champion the important research being carried out across the whole of the country. And we will build collaborative links with the Knowledge Quarter at St Pancras, home to, amongst others, The Crick Institute and Digital Catapult. The opening of the new Thanet Parkway station in 2023 will bring these and other collaborators within a 60 minute train journey from our campus in Sandwich.

And through Discovery Park Ventures (DPV, launched in 2022 with the capacity to write over £500,000 in funding, we will forge ahead with investments in early-stage life science and technology companies, allowing them to scale at speed. Already this is backing work in the  areas of microbiology, immunotherapy, anticancer research and ophthalmology, and these companies, with their potential to transform infant health, improve cancer outcomes and change eye operations for the better, are just a few examples of the cutting-edge life sciences research being carried out in the UK which must be supported if our health and economy is to improve.

So will the economic and regulatory climate change in 2023? Well that remains to be seen, but while continuing to lobby the Government on issues such as R&D tax credits and pushing for more initiatives such as the new International Science Partnership Fund, launched in by science minister George Freeman in December with the aim of supporting UK scientists working with peers around the world, we must continue to move forwards with our own initiatives, working together where we can in order to push the life sciences agenda and foster the conditions in which breakthroughs can happen and new treatments are realised without unnecessary delays.

The founding of Scitegrity in 2011 coincided with the opening of Discovery Park, making it one of the first new businesses on the site.

 

The journey has taken Scitegrity from a start-up company, offering chemical regulatory services to computer modelling of drugs in development to assess for potential drug abuse liabilities, to today working for five of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world.

 

Founders Joe Bradley and Ian Johns, both with many years of working in the pharmaceutical industry and Pfizer, Roche and AstraZeneca, had always lived locally and wanted to remain in the area. Having spotted there was no online tool available to identify regulatable chemicals for scientists involved in R&D, they took the plunge and set-up Scitegrity.

Scitegrity’s online platform – Controlled Substances Squared – quickly screens even the largest collections of millions of chemicals against controlled and regulated substance legislation in 28 countries around the world and is used many of the top pharma and chemical companies at the enterprise level.

 

Thanks to its complex algorithms, data sets and expertise, Scitegrity is able to utilise its capabilities to support the chemicals, pharmaceutical and biotech industry in the safe and legal supply of R&D chemicals, to the development of new drugs to treat psychiatric, neurological and CNS disorders through its insilico abuse potential assessments, required by the FDA and EMA.

 

Joe Bradley, Scitegrity’s CEO, said: “From our offices at Discovery Park we serve our customers around the world, with the majority based in the US or Europe.

 

“One part of what we do for our customers is linked to de-risking the development of drugs on the central nervous system and we are very excited to hear of the ambitious plans to create a national centre of excellence in neuroscience at Discovery Park.”

 

When Scitegrity was formed there was a degree of uncertainty over the long-term future of the site.

 

Joe Bradley added: “There was the widely held view that the site could close, but thanks to the vision of its owners, it’s become an excellent example of turning around such a major site.

 

“The park’s main tenant, Pfizer, has remained and continued to invest on site and the owners have nurtured a community of likeminded scientists and the businesses needed to support their work. Being onsite has given us many networking opportunities and access to support and growth advice such as the Discovery Park Reactor program. It’s a Kent success story.”

 

Given the growing regulatory environment impacting many industries, Scitegrity is now using its algorithms to extend its offering to include dangerous goods and GHS assessments of chemicals to help other sectors de-risk and speed up product development.

 

The last two years have impacted every business. Scitegrity has adapted well and is helping its clients move to the cloud, transitioning from legacy computer-based systems. Thanks to Microsoft Teams, Scitegrity is able to manage its own team effectively with work-shadowing in place, as well as providing remote training on its platform to its customers.

 

Reflecting on the journey, Joe Bradley said: “The fact that we work directly for such major names in the pharma industry speaks volumes about the quality of what we offer. We’re confident we’ll continue to grow as other industries adapt to compliance and regulation, and regulatory frameworks evolve.

 

“On a personal level, Discovery Park has given us the opportunity to create our own successful business with a platform for further growth, and the area provides us with that all important work-life balance.”