The Buzz of Biotech Innovation at Bio Integrates 2023

In its 5th year running, Bio Integrates once again stood out as an event that not only showcases innovation in the biotech space, but provides the community with practical insights regarding funding, partnering, regulations and more by bringing together stakeholders from across the sector to share real life industry experience.

“This is an event for the sector to look at where we are, who we are, and how we’re going to get through the mess that the UK healthcare sector finds itself in,” began Martino. “But we’re a resilient community, and whatever gets thrown at us we tend to come back stronger.”

He left attendees with a question to consider throughout the day – “new companies need to hit the ‘tipping point’ where they start to run themselves – my question to you is what does your tipping point look like?”

With a similarly unique conception story, Lydia Mapstone, CEO & Co-Founder of BoobyBiome, explained how her company began during her PhD: “we entered biotech start-up competitions and met with an angel investor who gave us funding while we were still studying.”

Sharing their journeys in raising funds, they addressed Martino’s question of tipping points. “What was really helpful for us was collaborating with a CRO – it gave investors assurance that the facilities and expertise were there,” said Lydia. Camilla and Vineeta identified points where they turned down funders that didn’t fully understand their companies, and instead went with fully supportive investors who really ‘got it’.

Addressing the factors that underpin a biotech’s success beyond the core innovation, the practical areas outside the science, and the future landscape, the panel sessions covered three tracks:

Platform, Planning, & Prediction

“The pharmaceutical industry has to deal with all kinds of molecules, and they don’t always behave as we’d like them to” said Clare Trippett (Chief Technologist, CPI), opening a discussion on formulations with a group of experts which potentially set a record for the number of ‘Cla(i)res’ on a panel.

Claire Thompson (CEO, Agility Life Sciences) outlined the issues facing the market: larger molecules and shorter timelines. “Bigger molecules are more cumbersome – more insoluble, less permeable. It takes a long time to manufacture them to the quality needed for pre-clinical studies. But investor milestones are compressing the time available to make them into products for the right route of administration, the right composition, with the best chance of success.” Claire Patterson (Director, Pharmaceutical Science, Seda) expanded on these challenges: “we’re getting into the realms of larger molecules with exciting therapeutic potential, but we still want patient-friendly delivery methods. Our usual techniques for predicting and understanding in vivo performance are failing us.” Frank Chambers (Director, Inhalytic) agreed, sharing similar experiences from work on inhalation formulations. “You can go through manufacturing processes and think you’ve got a molecule well characterised, but you put it into a drug product and everything changes.”

Looking for solutions, panellists discussed predictive models. “in silico models are really valuable to understand how a medicine is going to perform and how we need to adjust and enhance the formulation,” said Claire Patterson. Christopher Roe (Principal Research Fellow, Quotient Sciences) also praised the benefits of models, but emphasised the importance of in-human clinical trials: “humans are the best models for humans. The quicker you can get there the better.”

Putting platforms centre stage, James Fry (Partner & Head of Life Sciences, Mills & Reeve), led a discussion on benefits, challenges, and investment opportunities.

Before adopting a platform, Richard Vellacott (CEO, BiologIC Technologies) advised to consider the benefits in terms of both your business model and ‘R2C2’ – “will a platform maximise Revenue, Risk, Cost, and Capital?”

Turning to the challenges, Richard Fagan (Director, BioPharm at UCL Business) shared his experience from academic settings and spin-out companies. “The challenge is maintaining focus on one application. You need to push one focus forward as far as possible to get the full data package to show it works.” Moein Moghimi (Professor, Newcastle University) raised the challenge of competition: “when dealing with big pharma, the problem is competition within the pharma company. They’ve already put huge amounts of money into the problem themselves and found it doesn’t work, and now there’s a small company with a new technology that they say does work…”

The panel debated issues surrounding IP. “If you want to develop value, it’s important to innovate, and once you innovate you have to protect it. That’s what gives you leverage,” said Bakul Gupta (CEO & Co-founder, ImmTune Therapies). “The challenge is when to file patents,” added James Rushworth (Senior Scientist II, Sixfold Bioscience) – “you don’t want to file too early before you’ve clarified your ideas, but you don’t want to wait too late and get scooped.”

Turning to investment, Fiona Marston (Chair & CEO, Erebagen) emphasised the importance of both local and global investors: “Your lead investor has to be UK based to give you credibility. But there are challenges surrounding the amount of investment you can raise here in the UK. You really need an American investor within your syndicate.”

With 50 years of research into monoclonal antibodies, Alan Boyd (CEO & Founder, Boyds) asked panellists whether antibodies are still a relevant modality with the rise of cell & gene therapies. “Antibodies are here to stay,” said Adrian Kinkaid (CEO, Fusion Antibodies), “one forecast puts 5 of the top 10 drugs as antibodies.” Sharing his legal perspective, Marc Wilkinson (Partner, European & UK Patent Attorney, J A Kemp) said the strong future of antibodies is backed up by the number of patents – and this increase in demand is seen across the supply chain. “We can’t keep up with demand for the service,” said Carolyn Flanigan (Director of Operations, Absolute Antibody), describing the huge need for antibody sequencing, engineering & expression capacity. Fiona Dempsey (Director of Scientific Operations, Medannex) emphasised the severity of this shortage of antibody manufacturing slots in the UK – “the government needs to actually listen to what are considered high value industries – there’s not enough support for UK manufacturing.”

Sharing excitement about the future, the panel discussed the diverse therapeutic applications of antibodies. Jolyon Martin (Co-Founder & Head of Business Development, PetMedix) explained the growth of antibodies in veterinary medicine – “the first antibody for dogs was approved about five years ago, and four more have been approved since – they’ve generally been very well received because they work so well.” Returning to human applications, all panellists shared hope for antibodies to address Dementia, Alzheimer’s, and infectious disease.

Once funding is secured, the pressure sets in to hit key milestones, and Jenny Laird (Vice President, Search & Evaluation Pain & Neurodegeneration, Eli Lilly and Company) asked panellists how to scale up and deliver milestones quickly.

The discussion stated with the planning stage: “don’t be entirely focused on milestones, focus on the value narrative,” said Craig Fox (Operating Partner Life Sciences, Oxford Science Enterprises). “You need the company to be exciting the day after you’ve hit the milestone, not just the day before,” he continued, “time is still your enemy, you have to be nimble and quick, but you must never rush.” John von Benecke (CEO, Locate Bio) commented on time pressures from a CEO’s perspective. “CEOs feel the time pressure. Things will go against you and you can’t predict what they’ll be. Learning to learn quickly is a key attribute of a start-up.”

A major topic of discussion was the importance of people and culture. “How much time do companies actually spend on the people side of the strategy? Are people at the centre of the strategy?” challenged John. “For start-ups, there’s a unique opportunity to build a culture strategy which will deliver the corporate strategy.” Expanding on this, Nigel Brooks (Coach & Advisor​, Lean Life Science) emphasised teamwork: “trust and team is absolutely essential – make everyone feel involved and communicate openly.” Sharing the perspective of a contract research organisation, Nick Smith (Regional Operations Manager, Scitech) stressed the importance of making CROs and CDMOs feel part of the team. “Getting everyone aligned as to the regulatory framework, the strategies, the intent, and the ways of working is absolutely essential,” he said.

Adding the perspective of an investor, Will Brooks (Investment Director, Downing) shared his advice for companies seeking investment: “Be realistic. Don’t allow your investor to dictate your milestones, but equally make sure you listen to them – they’ve been there and done it and have more experience of where the next round of funding will come from.”

With the whole sector working hard to get more science funding into the UK, it’s vital to discuss where this great science is going to happen, explained Mayer Schreiber (CEO, Discovery Park), leading the discussion on the importance of location to business success. Panellists considered what matters most when choosing your location. Sally Ann Forsyth OBE (CEO, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst) identified her three top factors as “geographic location, scientific strength, and the ecosystem”, explaining the importance of grow-on space, reputation for excellence in the field, and a cluster that supports your needs at each stage of your journey. Rich Ferrie (CEO, London Bioscience Innovation Centre) added ‘the talent piece’ to this list – “you need the ability to recruit and retain high quality scientists.” Nuno Alves (Associate Director, Innovation Management, Astellas Europe) offered his three top factors for choosing a location: “It’s all about the people, the infrastructure, and the money access. As soon as you hit these three factors, you’re likely to have success.”

A key theme was the importance of flexibility as businesses grow. “You need the right space on the right terms, at the right time,” said Toby Reid (Executive Director, Pioneer Group). Sharing the perspective of the property developers, Charles Walford (Director, Stanhope) explained the importance of a long-term view: “If you default to the first location you can find, will it sustain you in the long term? Or will you step back five years down the line and find that it’s not doing it in the terms of growing your business?”

“Pharma partnering is accelerating at pace – both the deal volume and value are increasing year on year,” said Tauhid Ali (Co-Founder and Board Director, Oak Hill Bio), exploring the traits of a good partnership with panellists from biotech and pharma. “A good partnership is all about alignment and a mutually beneficial relationship,” said Helen Barker (Vice President, Global Tech Ops & CMC, Reneo Pharmaceuticals), “we’re all working towards the same goal – getting a medicine for patients to the market.” Sharing a CDMO perspective, Neil Jones (CCO, Aenova Group) mentioned the need to understand upfront what both parties are trying to achieve from relationships: “does the company just want more hands, or do they want our brains?”

The importance of clearly pre-defined contracts was emphasised by all panellists: “the trick is to align your goals as much as possible in clearly defined contracts. Plan well in advance. Set it up so there’s clarity,” advised Joachim Luithle (Co-Founder, BioLink Intelligence). However, beyond the legal agreements, speakers agreed that a good partnership requires a true integration of skills and interests. “We don’t like to be called a ‘CRO’ but a ‘drug discovery partner’. We like to work with companies who see us as an extension of their team and involve us in the decisions and processes,” said Justin Bryans (CSO Early Discovery, Charles River Laboratories).

Looking back to the ‘virtual’ Bio Integrates of 2021, it’s only through the incredible COVID-19 vaccination programme that events like this are back in person. In the final session of the day, Janet Hemingway CBE (Professor of Tropical, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) discussed the impact of the pandemic on the drug and vaccine development landscape. “In the pandemic, everyone got together and worked as a team – this is the learning and yearning for us,” said Philip Cruz (Country Medical Director, UK, Moderna). “Data from the ABPI shows that from 2017-2021 there’s been a 41% drop in the number of late-stage clinical trials in UK. We were 4th globally and now we’re 10th. This is a stat we can’t ignore,” he stated, emphasising the importance of increasing diversity in clinical trials – a focus at Moderna.

A key area of discussion was the balance and relationship between fundamental vs translational science. “If you don’t do the basic science, they’ll be nothing to translate. We have to do the basic science, but you need to think about how you’d translate it,” said Clare Bryant (Professor, University of Cambridge), who called for better communication between the translational and basic science communities. Joshua Blight, (CEO & Co-Founder, Baseimmune) agreed, stating that “you need to think about making things translational. But at the same time, so many discoveries are made because people just love science and are interested in it.” He shared his concept of a ‘birthday experiment’ – “on my birthday, I get free reign to conduct any experiment I want, no matter if it works or not, just for the fun of it!”

The panel debated the UK Government’s 100 Day Mission – a plan to reduce the impact of future pandemics by making diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines available within 100 days. “We can do what we can to speed up the areas we can control. There are things we can do that greatly reduce timelines and at least get us to clinics faster. Let’s keep making progress in the things we can control,” said Juliana Haggerty (Head of Centre of Excellence – Lipid Nanoparticles, CPI).

Ending the session, speakers addressed the issues surrounding vaccine hesitancy. “Vaccines don’t work – vaccination does,” said Philip. Clare’s solution is to engage in multidisciplinary research – “not just maths and science, but the social science and economics surrounding the whole programme, including vaccine hesitancy and investment.”