Acquisitive Lab21 lines up new purchase
Written by Tony Quested Thursday, 05 August 2010 15:10
News - Life Sciences
When Sir Christopher Evans, founding father of the Cambridge biotechnology cluster, advises you to follow the progress of a young life sciences company, you sit up and listen.
To ignore his built-in radar of genuinely disruptive healthcare sector plays is not unlike dismissing a share tip from Warren Buffett.Sir Christopher flagged up the potential of clinical diagnostics business Lab21 from day one. He felt it would go on to be a prime accelerator of the race towards personalised medicines.Five years on and this young company, with a headquarters at Cambridge Science Park and important facilities in Newmarket and Ipswich, is more than living up to its promise and is now poised for its next phase of growth.For a long while, the healthcare revolution promised by Sanger’s mapping of the Human Genome failed to materialise. Now the world is moving inexorably towards truly personalised healthcare. Mike Annable, who is Divisional Director for Diagnostic Services at the Science Park clinical laboratory, points out: “Lab21’s founder, Dr Berwyn Clarke, was already working in our current Science Park HQ from 2000 and realised the potential in this area so, when the chance came to lay the foundations for Lab21 on such a prestigious location, and in a facility he knew well, he didn’t let the opportunity pass by.”The Lab21 team is in pole position to contribute right now by working with pharmaceutical clients to deliver high-quality diagnostic information on drugs and patients that provides real clinical insight.The company has gained major international traction as it increasingly supports healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with technically advanced testing services, building exciting collaborations in the Personalised Medicine field.Mike Annable adds that the company has built a highly experienced and globally respected team from its Cambridge HQ, which houses both administrative functions and the core service delivery elements of the business. The company also has facilities in Ipswich, Newmarket, Liverpool and Dorset – and now global expansion is on the radar with facilities in South Carolina.Mike said: “Not only has the Science Park been a useful springboard to international trade, but also we work with or for other Science Park companies – so in itself it is a useful source of business which we hope will expand as we continue to seek strategic co-operations and licensing opportunities.“It also helps us to be relatively close to the University of Cambridge and also Addenbrooke’s Hospital, whose site is soon to house Europe’s leading biomedical campus.“We have gleaned a lot of experience and skill for a relatively small company and have also followed an extremely focused strategy to bring in complementary expertise. As at the end of 2009 we had made five acquisitions in an 18 month period, four of them in 2009, growing revenues four-fold over the same time period.”One of the most significant of the acquisitions was in South Carolina in December, which gave Lab21 an instant footprint in the highly important United States marketplace.Lab21 bought Selah Technologies LLC, which has exciting, proprietary nanotechnologies for use in in-vitro and in-vivo diagnostic products. In parallel, Lab21 formed Lab21 Inc., headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, with a 10,000 sq ft state-of-the-art diagnostics service laboratory under construction and product distribution operations in addition to Selah Technologies.Lab21 Inc. was established in Greenville with the significant support of the South Carolina Department of Commerce and other public and private organisations committed to promoting South Carolina as a centre of the knowledge economy. Mike says Lab21, has been adopted as something of a “poster child” for anyone investing in laboratory facilities in the State.The new diagnostic service laboratory which, just like the Cambridge laboratory will comply with US CLIA regulatory requirements, will have a particular focus on oncology, a field in which it is universally believed the first personalised medicines will be developed. It is predicted that over 80 per cent of all new oncology therapies developed over the next 10 years will need an accompanying patient diagnostic test before the drug is administered; called a companion diagnostic. This is the sector of the diagnostic market in which Lab21 believes its core experience and skills will help drive further growth.Back in the UK there are now 25 out of a total 100 staff at Lab21’s Science Park HQ where the company is in the process of expanding. It has the top floor of its existing building and is now taking the ground floor as well and will move some of the administrative and financial staff currently based in Newmarket to HQ.While the company admits to the normal degree of teething problems as newly acquired businesses have been integrated, Lab21 looks a tremendously well-rounded business and one well set to have genuine impact on healthcare, through the advent of personalised medicines.The company’s rationale is geared towards helping drug and therapeutics developers target individuals with solutions based on individual genetic make-up – the holy grail of the post-genomics era. “The prospects are so exciting,” says Mike.The future is also increasingly international. Lab21 already receives samples from around the globe – from Europe and the Middle East, for example. The company has just clinched its first major contract in China, to deal with that country’s rising epidemic of syphilis, and this has provided Lab21 with a foot in the door of the world’s fastest-growing healthcare market and economy.South Carolina today. What price China tomorrow?Mike says Lab21 will keep all its options open. “Clearly our expertise is taking us into new marketplaces and over time it is not unreasonable to assume that we could set up operations in other regions.“The beauty is that we can move at our own pace: we’re under no pressure to snatch at an IPO and are confident we can continue to raise sufficient funding by staying private – in fact we are currently refinancing to fund our next acquisition. We will keep an eye on the marketplace, of course, but global organic growth is the immediate focus.”
Written by Tony Quested Thursday, 05 August 2010 15:10
News - Life Sciences
When Sir Christopher Evans, founding father of the Cambridge biotechnology cluster, advises you to follow the progress of a young life sciences company, you sit up and listen.
To ignore his built-in radar of genuinely disruptive healthcare sector plays is not unlike dismissing a share tip from Warren Buffett.Sir Christopher flagged up the potential of clinical diagnostics business Lab21 from day one. He felt it would go on to be a prime accelerator of the race towards personalised medicines.Five years on and this young company, with a headquarters at Cambridge Science Park and important facilities in Newmarket and Ipswich, is more than living up to its promise and is now poised for its next phase of growth.For a long while, the healthcare revolution promised by Sanger’s mapping of the Human Genome failed to materialise. Now the world is moving inexorably towards truly personalised healthcare. Mike Annable, who is Divisional Director for Diagnostic Services at the Science Park clinical laboratory, points out: “Lab21’s founder, Dr Berwyn Clarke, was already working in our current Science Park HQ from 2000 and realised the potential in this area so, when the chance came to lay the foundations for Lab21 on such a prestigious location, and in a facility he knew well, he didn’t let the opportunity pass by.”The Lab21 team is in pole position to contribute right now by working with pharmaceutical clients to deliver high-quality diagnostic information on drugs and patients that provides real clinical insight.The company has gained major international traction as it increasingly supports healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with technically advanced testing services, building exciting collaborations in the Personalised Medicine field.Mike Annable adds that the company has built a highly experienced and globally respected team from its Cambridge HQ, which houses both administrative functions and the core service delivery elements of the business. The company also has facilities in Ipswich, Newmarket, Liverpool and Dorset – and now global expansion is on the radar with facilities in South Carolina.Mike said: “Not only has the Science Park been a useful springboard to international trade, but also we work with or for other Science Park companies – so in itself it is a useful source of business which we hope will expand as we continue to seek strategic co-operations and licensing opportunities.“It also helps us to be relatively close to the University of Cambridge and also Addenbrooke’s Hospital, whose site is soon to house Europe’s leading biomedical campus.“We have gleaned a lot of experience and skill for a relatively small company and have also followed an extremely focused strategy to bring in complementary expertise. As at the end of 2009 we had made five acquisitions in an 18 month period, four of them in 2009, growing revenues four-fold over the same time period.”One of the most significant of the acquisitions was in South Carolina in December, which gave Lab21 an instant footprint in the highly important United States marketplace.Lab21 bought Selah Technologies LLC, which has exciting, proprietary nanotechnologies for use in in-vitro and in-vivo diagnostic products. In parallel, Lab21 formed Lab21 Inc., headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, with a 10,000 sq ft state-of-the-art diagnostics service laboratory under construction and product distribution operations in addition to Selah Technologies.Lab21 Inc. was established in Greenville with the significant support of the South Carolina Department of Commerce and other public and private organisations committed to promoting South Carolina as a centre of the knowledge economy. Mike says Lab21, has been adopted as something of a “poster child” for anyone investing in laboratory facilities in the State.The new diagnostic service laboratory which, just like the Cambridge laboratory will comply with US CLIA regulatory requirements, will have a particular focus on oncology, a field in which it is universally believed the first personalised medicines will be developed. It is predicted that over 80 per cent of all new oncology therapies developed over the next 10 years will need an accompanying patient diagnostic test before the drug is administered; called a companion diagnostic. This is the sector of the diagnostic market in which Lab21 believes its core experience and skills will help drive further growth.Back in the UK there are now 25 out of a total 100 staff at Lab21’s Science Park HQ where the company is in the process of expanding. It has the top floor of its existing building and is now taking the ground floor as well and will move some of the administrative and financial staff currently based in Newmarket to HQ.While the company admits to the normal degree of teething problems as newly acquired businesses have been integrated, Lab21 looks a tremendously well-rounded business and one well set to have genuine impact on healthcare, through the advent of personalised medicines.The company’s rationale is geared towards helping drug and therapeutics developers target individuals with solutions based on individual genetic make-up – the holy grail of the post-genomics era. “The prospects are so exciting,” says Mike.The future is also increasingly international. Lab21 already receives samples from around the globe – from Europe and the Middle East, for example. The company has just clinched its first major contract in China, to deal with that country’s rising epidemic of syphilis, and this has provided Lab21 with a foot in the door of the world’s fastest-growing healthcare market and economy.South Carolina today. What price China tomorrow?Mike says Lab21 will keep all its options open. “Clearly our expertise is taking us into new marketplaces and over time it is not unreasonable to assume that we could set up operations in other regions.“The beauty is that we can move at our own pace: we’re under no pressure to snatch at an IPO and are confident we can continue to raise sufficient funding by staying private – in fact we are currently refinancing to fund our next acquisition. We will keep an eye on the marketplace, of course, but global organic growth is the immediate focus.”
No comments:
Post a Comment