100 Life Sciences Showcase: We highlight some of the regions innovative Life Science companies - in association with Milton Park and Freeths

The pandemic saw UK life sciences companies thrown into the global spotlight. In this issue of Business & Innovation Magazine, we reveal 100 of the region’s most successful and share some of their innovations.

In this extended showcase, we highlight a selection of them...

Active Needle Technology Ltd

Unsuccessful biopsy due to inaccurate needle placement is common according to Active Needle Technology, which is based at Culham Science Centre near Abingdon.

It can be costly too, because it could mean that another biopsy needs to be done, incurring extra costs, and clinician time – never mind all the extra scheduling of appointments and patients being required to come back another day.

The Active Needle Technology company has developed a needle actuating device. Its award-winning technology enables precision needle targeting and has the potential to allow clinicians to perform these procedures safely, efficiently and cost-effectively benefiting patients and healthcare providers.

“Its award-winning technology enables precision needle targeting..."

The technology is the outcome of research work carried out by Dr Muhammad Sadiq, a biomedical engineer and Royal Society of Edinburgh enterprise fellow, and Professor Graeme McLeod, a consultant anaesthetist at Ninewells Hospital and the University of Dundee.

In March the pre-revenue company announced that it had been awarded an Innovate UK grant to help it focus on scaled manufacture for its devices. It is working with the Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre to help it develop a strategy for building its devices at volume.

Late last year the company raised more than £250,000 on crowdfunding site Crowdcube.

Adaptimmune Therapeutics Ltd

Adaptimmune is a leader in T cell receptor therapy to treat cancer.

The company's unique SPEAR (Specific Peptide Enhanced Affinity Receptor) T-cell platform enables the engineering of T-cells to target and destroy cancer, including solid tumours.

Its technology was developed at Oxford University in the early 1990s and a business called Avidex was spun out. Adaptimmune was spun out of that company and in 2015 it launched on the New York Nasdaq, raising $176 million.

It has a sister company (also in this listing), Immunocore which focuses on soluble TCR technology.

In September last year, Adaptimmune announced that it had entered into a strategic collaboration and licence agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group to develop and commercialise allogeneic cell therapies to treat multiple oncology indications.

Beckley Psytech Ltd

Beckley Psytech was established to help patients suffering from neurological and psychiatric disorders by developing psychedelic compounds – such as magic mushrooms, ketamine, DMT, and LSD – into licenced pharmaceutical medicines.

In 1998 Lady Amanda Feilding set up the Beckley Foundation, a non-profit NGO focused on evidence-based drug policy reform and scientific research into psychedelic medicines.

Over the last 20 years the Beckley Foundation has become a world-famous pioneer in psychedelic research. Amanda has been dubbed “the hidden hand” behind the renaissance in psychedelic science, featured on the Guardian’s list of the Bravest Men and Women in the History of Science, and has personally co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications on the subject.

Oxford-based Beckley Psytech was created to build upon the Foundation’s work by developing safe and effective psychedelic medicines available to patients.

"In 2020 the company raised more than $22 million to develop an intranasal formulation of synthetic 5-MeO-DMT, which is found in plants and in the glands of the Sonoran Desert toad."

In January it announced the first cohort of volunteers had been dosed in a clinical trial exploring the safety of the substance, with the aim of helping patients with treatment-resistant depression.

The trial is being conducted as part of Beckley Psytech’s ongoing collaboration with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London and is being led by Dr James Rucker, who said: “Treatment-resistant depression is a challenging condition, and it is exciting to be exploring new treatment options that could have a positive impact on patients’ lives in the future.”

Brainomix Ltd

This Oxford-based company specialises in developing Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered software to enable image-guided precision medicine for better treatment decisions for stroke, lung fibrosis and cancer patients.

In February Brainomix announced a new partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, to improve the accuracy and standardisation of tumour measurement in clinical trials through further development of its AI software.

Brainomix will leverage its existing capabilities in AI-powered medical software development, supported by Boehringer Ingelheim’s expertise in clinical development and the translation of technology innovation into practical applications.

Last December the company closed a series B financing round, raising £16 million to fund expansion into new markets and therapeutic indications. The financing was co-led by existing investors Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and Parkwalk Advisors, along with new investor, Tencent Holdings, and included participation from Oxford University Innovation Fund.

Carbon Gold Ltd

Carbon Gold was established by Green & Black’s Chocolate founder Craig Sams in 2007 as an organic, peat-free planting aid.

Together with co-founder Dan Morrell, who established the Carbon Neutral Company, they developed a natural range of organic biochar, a bi-product of burning biomass to produce a charcoal-like substance which traps carbon while adding nutrients to the soil.

Carbon Gold’s biochar products are free from peat and synthetic chemicals and are Soil Association approved for organic growing.

Carbon Gold, which is based in Bristol, works with Premier League football clubs, major race and golf courses, royal parks and gardens to improve the condition of their grounds, but the product is also available to amateur gardeners.

Executive chairman Craig Sams said: “Carbon Gold has always been about making a difference. Whether that’s helping trees flourish in the face of pests and diseases, boosting commercial growers’ yields to help them meet growing demand and stay profitable, or sequestering carbon permanently in soil to combat climate change.”

CryoLogyx Ltd

University of Warwick spin-out, CryoLogyx, is developing cell models frozen in-plate and ready to use directly from the freezer.

Its proprietary technology can provide the best of both worlds - frozen cells that are bankable and easy to store, in the end-use format needed for scientific research.

In May last year, the company was awarded £300,000 from Innovate UK to develop cryopreservation agents with applications in the diagnostic, medicines discovery and cell-based therapy markets.

In order to store and transport cells for research, or as advanced medicines, it is essential to freeze them as they are not stable at room temperature for long periods.

The traditional solution to this was to add organic solvent “antifreezes”, similar to those used in a car. Professor Matthew Gibson’s lab at the University of Warwick has learned from how organisms survive in the coldest environments on earth to develop new macromolecular cryoprotectants which allow more cells to survive the freezing process and to replace the organic solvents.

The polymer cryoprotectants are easy to use, can give up to four times the number of recovered cells, and have been shown to work in a range of cell types.

CryoLogyx is aiming to use this platform technology to accelerate fundamental life science research, simplify the development process and aid supply chains.

Eden Research PLC

Based at Milton Park in Oxfordshire, Eden Research is an Aim-quoted company helping farmers to sustainably produce high-value crops, improving crop yields and marketability.

It is estimated that a staggering 20-40 per cent of global crop production is lost to pests and disease each year. To counter this, farmers spend billions of dollars every year on products that help them protect their crops and keep up with food demand.

Pesticides are a critical component of effective crop protection. However, some conventional pesticides contain chemicals that may be harmful to human health or the environment. Consumers are also increasingly concerned about the potential impact of pesticide residues in the food they eat.

Eden is the UK’s only listed company focused on biopesticides for sustainable agriculture. It develops innovative biopesticide products and natural microencapsulation technologies to the global crop protection, animal health and consumer products industries.

Its products, two of which are commercially available, are based on natural plant chemistry but deliver performance, ease of use and cost on par with conventional alternatives, the company says.

Biopesticides typically offer a lower risk solution but are still rigorously assessed before approval for sale. They are the fastest growing segment of the crop protection industry and their use has increased in recent years as older chemistry has been removed from the market due to consumer demands and consequent regulatory pressure.

Enesi Pharma Ltd

“Getting a jab” is something we've all had to get used to recently. But ImplaVax from Oxford-based Enesi Pharma does away with the dreaded needle.

Almost all vaccines are administered in liquid or suspension form, using a needle and syringe.

Anxiety UK says up to 10 per cent of the population suffers from full-on needle phobia, but no-one really enjoys a shot in the arm.

Instead of injecting liquid deep into the muscle, ImplaVax administers a solid dose implant just under the skin, using downward force pressure. The implant completely dissolves, releasing the vaccine and eliminating the risk of dosing errors.

And vaccines delivered by ImplaVax can be administered by individuals with little or no training.

Cold chain logistical issues like the ones seen during the coronavirus pandemic are also negated because of ImplaVax's thermal stability. UK clinics had to install cold storage facilities to administer some vaccines, but in developing countries the situation is far worse and logistical issues make vaccine delivery to remote communities impossible.

And, says Enesi, it's better for the environment as some components can be reused up to 1,000 times, unlike the traditional single-use syringe.

In October Enesi entered into an agreement with the US National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to test a novel ImplaVax enabled pandemic flu vaccine.

Evotec (UK) Ltd

Founded in Germany and with a major presence at Oxfordshire's Milton Park, Evotec is a drug discovery and development company. The company operates globally, largely through external alliances with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions, patient advocacy groups, and venture capitalists.

The company's 2,000 plus employees work across a number of therapeutic areas including neurology (Alzheimer's and Huntington's Disease), metabolic diseases like diabetes, cancer and inflammatory and infectious diseases.

In late 2020 Evotec announced the expansion of its campus at Milton Park, naming its new discovery and development centre after Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, the Nobel Prize-winning British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for structural biology.

Evotec’s campus at Milton Park already benefits from the strong relationships and proximity with the Diamond Light Source at Harwell, making it a centre of excellence in structure-based drug design. The location also facilitates partnership opportunities in the Oxford and UK academic and biotech scene.

With more than 600 employees on site, the campus will became one of three fully integrated powerhouses of capacity, capabilities and know-how in integrated research and development along with those at Toulouse and Verona.

The wider company is also embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive up the probability of success of its treatments and has partnered with the University of Bristol to expand its molecular patient database in the field of kidney diseases with a focus on nephrotic syndrome.

FluoretiQ Ltd

University of Bristol spin-out FluoretiQ is a medical device company designing simple but effective bacterial detection systems for rapid infection diagnosis.

Its proprietary diagnostic platform, Nanoplex, identifies bacterial infections in just 15 minutes – instead of the days traditional laboratory techniques can take.

Products built on the platform will enable doctors to confirm infection within minutes, stopping the use of incorrect and unnecessary prescription of antibiotics, says the start-up.

In February FluoretiQ announced the completion of a £1.1 million, pre-series A investment, which will enable the team to produce trial units of its first Nanoplex product, a 15-minute urinary tract infection diagnostic device.

Nanoplex says it provides laboratory quality results 200 times faster than laboratory analysis, helping clinicians meet antibiotic stewardship targets.

FluoretiQ’s products will be an important tool in the wake of reports showing that antimicrobial resistance is growing faster than expected.

In a report prepared for the government in 2014, antimicrobial resistance was predicted to reach 10 million cases by 2050 and exceed cancer as the leading cause of death across the world.

Halo Therapeutics Ltd

Halo Therapeutics develops safe pan-coronavirus antiviral drugs for Covid-19 that can be administered by patients.

The company was founded in 2021 by scientists from the University of Bristol who found that exposing the coronavirus to a free fatty acid called linoleic acid locks the virus’s spike protein into a closed, non-infective form – stopping it in its tracks.

Free fatty acids are already manufactured at huge scale for the nutritional industry and have a decades-long track record of use in the pharma industry as inactive ingredients. They have an iron-clad safety record, says the company.

Halo Therapeutics' antiviral is delivered via a nasal spray. It should stop the coronavirus multiplying, halting it in its tracks before it can reach a patient’s respiratory tract and lungs.

And because it is delivered by a simple nasal spray it can be used at home.

The team developed a stable formulation, established manufacturing pipelines and designed the spray delivery apparatus in nine months – a process that would usually take two to three years.

The team is seeking funding to take its ground-breaking pan-coronavirus antiviral to clinical trials.

Invivo Diagnostics Ltd

We've grown accustomed to hearing about 'good bacteria' in yogurt commercials on the TV. But which bacteria are good, which are bad, and do elevated levels mean there's something seriously wrong with us?

Since 2018 Invivo Diagnostics has been working to analyse microbiome samples taken from patients and build a wide picture of what our internal microbial ecosystems can and should look like.

Meanwhile, its sister company Invivo Healthcare produces supplements that can rebalance our microbial ecosystems when there is a deficit of 'good bacteria'.

“Going forward, understanding the way human microbiomes interact with each other could prevent conditions like infertility and miscarriages”

From its lab in Bristol, Invivo concentrates on three main areas: vaginal, oral, and gastrointestinal microbiomes. Tests are submitted by clinicians for diagnosis. The presence of certain bacteria can explain illnesses or medical conditions – irritable bowel syndrome, for example. And they can also provide markers in the diagnosis of cancers.

Invivo's scientists are also keen to understand the bigger patient picture. Stress, smoking, diet and chemicals like perfumes can all affect microbial ecosystems, as can the PH levels – the acidity – of the mouth, stomach or vagina. Founder Humphrey Bacchus says it is important to understand "the soup in which the bacteria are swimming".

Understanding the way human microbiomes interact with each other could prevent conditions like infertility and miscarriages. Looking at how a man’s semen microbiome and his partner’s vaginal microbiome react with each other could help women conceive more successfully and carry a baby to full term, says the company.

Isansys Ltd

In March, a ground-breaking project to monitor young patients at home won funding from NHS England’s Transformation Directorate to create a hospital from home for acutely unwell children.

The technology, the Patient Status Engine developed by Isansys, allows hospital clinicians to monitor young patients at home as if they were in hospital, providing the patients’ vital signs continuously at a central monitoring station or on mobile devices 24 hours a day, ultimately integrating this key data into the electronic medical record system.

Using this information, clinicians and community care teams can work together to develop personalised care plans for young patients at home, eliminating the stress and disruption of admission, or readmission, to hospital.

Isansys says its Patient Status Engine is the most complete, scalable and simple-to-use advanced patient monitoring platform. The company has subsidiaries in Germany and India, and through a network of distributors and partners, it works with healthcare providers globally seeking lower cost monitoring and higher quality data.

Lipocast Biotech UK Ltd

From premises at Cirencester Park, near the world-famous polo ground, Lipocast Biotech UK is helping horses and ponies recover from injuries using a treatment adopted from human medicine.

The Lipogems system transfers fat tissue from the horse’s tail head to a damaged part of the animal’s body in a single step, triggering the body’s own damage response mechanism. Because there is no need for laboratory culturing, transplanting can take place within 20 to 30 minutes of harvesting.

The system can treat tendon injuries, inflammation of ligaments, soft tissue damage, and early osteoarthritis. As well as supplying the Lipogems system, Lipocast Biotech UK also trains the vets to deliver it.

Because the process is relatively simple, horses can be treated at home rather than being sent to a veterinary hospital.

To date more than 20,000 Lipogems Equine procedures have been carried out, with a 95 per cent success rate, says the company. The treatment can be used on pets, but also on sports horses and ponies, saving them from career-ending injuries or conditions and allowing them to race, jump or play polo again within months.

Lipocast Biotech UK continues to research and develop regenerative science on equines. And there’s good news for dog-lovers – the treatment has recently been adapted for use in canine veterinary practice.

Medherant Ltd

Medherant is a clinical-stage company developing innovative treatments using its novel transdermal drug delivery technology, the TEPI Patch. There is considerable interest in the transdermal delivery of drugs to overcome some of the disadvantages of oral administration, such as spikes in drug levels that can lead to side effects, and poor compliance. Patches are also a more convenient way to deliver drugs through the skin than gels and creams and provide better dose control.

The company was founded by Professor David Haddleton and the University of Warwick using their world-leading expertise in bioadhesives and polymer chemistry.

Medherant has developed its own novel pressure sensitive adhesive. The drug to be delivered is mixed with the adhesive. This proprietary delivery system was well-tolerated in a Phase I clinical study.

Medherant is collaborating with third parties to formulate their drugs for transdermal delivery using its TEPI technology. In the future, Medherant expects to receive milestone payments and/or licence revenues for products utilising its technology.

Medherant has secured funding from Mercia Fund Management and private investors.

Occuity Ltd

The eye, says Occuity CEO Dan Daly, is about far more than seeing the world around us. It contains a record of the changes happening within our bodies. Diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease leave markers as the disease progresses.

Occuity’s products use patented optical technologies to identify changes in the eye which can be used for the early detection and monitoring of these diseases and more.

Reading-based Occuity says its products can be used to make diagnosis quickly and non-invasively.

Last September it launched a £1.8 million fundraiser on crowdfunding platform Seedrs – and smashed its target within 24 hours, settling at more than £2 million. It was the largest MedTech financing deal ever on the platform.

In total the firm raised £2.85 million for the development of Occuity Indigo, an optical glucose meter. The device will allow the 4.7 million people in the UK with diabetes to monitor their bloodsugar levels through a simple scan of the eye.

Its other products are the AX1 Axiometer, which will be used to look at the progression and control of myopia (nearsightedness), and the PM1 Pachymeter, which will make it easier, faster and safer to diagnose glaucoma by measuring corneal thickness in just a few seconds.

The PM1 is due to be launched this year with the AX1 following in 2023.

OrganOx Ltd

Last November, Oxford Investment Consultants (OIC) made a £1.6 million investment from the Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund into OrganOx Ltd, a spin-out from Oxford University’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering. The following month OrganOx was granted premarket approval of its metra system by the USA Food and Drug Administration.

The OrganOx metra is an automated device for the preservation and transport of donor livers destined for transplantation. The marketing approval includes livers from donors after brain death and livers from donors after circulatory death.

The OrganOx metra improves the viability and supply of donor organs. During preservation with the metra, the liver is continuously perfused with oxygenated blood, medications and nutrients at normal body temperature and physiological pressures, and flows for up to 24 hours.

This means the liver is functional throughout preservation, allowing for evidence-based decisions on whether to transplant a donor organ. The metra has already supported more than 1,000 liver transplants globally.

The investment was part of a £6.4 million equity funding round led by OIC and supported by existing and new shareholders.

Owen Mumford Ltd

Founded in Oxford in 1952, Owen Mumford has grown from a small, family-run business to a medical device innovator.

This year, the company is celebrating its 70th anniversary as a global leader in medical device design and manufacture, leading innovation and delivering medical device solutions that respond to customer and market needs.

Through this well-established network it delivers the highest levels of safety, comfort and accuracy in the treatment and diagnosis of chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

Owen Mumford has developed Aidaptus, a two-step single use auto-injector”

Owen Mumford has pioneered a number of world firsts including an automatic lancing device for home blood glucose monitoring and the first plastic auto-injector. Today, the company continues to develop innovative medical device solutions including its Unifine SafeControl safety pen needle and Aidaptus, a two-step single use auto-injector

Oxford Biomedica plc

This Oxford University spin-out, which became a household name after becoming one of the manufacturers of Britain’s Oxford AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, has a lot more strings to its bow as a leading cell and gene therapy group.

Its Oxford-based manufacturing facility, Oxbox, was originally built to solely service the Group’s growing demand for lentiviral vectors in the fast-growing cell and gene therapy market where it is a leading global specialist working with multiple partners. The Oxbox facility was completed at the end of 2019 with the Group expecting to have one or potentially two of the manufacturing suites approved during 2020. In April that year the Group joined the Oxford Vaccine Consortium and shortly afterwards signed the first of two agreements with AstraZeneca for Covid-19 vaccine production.

This March the company completed its deal with Homology Medicines Inc, a genetic medicines company listed on the New York-based NASDAQ, to establish Oxford Biomedica Solutions LLC, a new US-based full scope, adeno-associated virus manufacturing and innovation business.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc

Scientists across the world are using Oxford Nanopore’s DNA/RNA sequencing technology to answer some of society’s most urgent and important questions, including those concerned with biomedical, pathogen, plant and animal scientific research, infectious disease, critical viral surveillance, optimising crop efficiency, ensuring food security and understanding how our environment is changing.

Late last year Oxford Nanopore, which has developed a new generation of sensing technology that uses nanopores – nano-scale holes – embedded in high-tech electronics, to perform precise molecular analyses, launched its highly anticipated IPO on the London Stock Exchange, pricing the company at £3.4 billion.

The company, which started to sell its first commercial device, the MinION portable DNA/RNA sequencer in 2015, is looking to bring DNA sequencing out of the laboratory and into the consumer market.

Oxular Ltd

Oxular is a clinical-stage retinal therapeutics company developing technology to transform the treatment of retinal diseases including diabetic macular edema (DME) and macular degeneration.

DME is a serious retinal disease that affects 24 million people globally and is the leading cause of blindness in young adults in developed countries.

It is also developing programmes for conditions such as ocular cancers and the delivery of gene therapies.

A key challenge facing patients with DME is the need for frequent clinic visits for repeated treatment injections.

“In March 2021 the Oxford-based bio-tech secured £27 million financing led by Forbion Capital Partners with support from the company’s existing leading investors”

To address this, OXU-001, an innovative, sustained-release formulation of dexamethasone, provides up to 12 months’ treatment effects following a single administration.

Oxular’s products include Oxuspheres, a drug-containing biodegradable polymer system, designed as an adjustable, sustained release formulation, and Oxulumi, a semi-automated ocular administration device using an advantageous route of administration to deliver therapeutics for the treatment of retinal diseases.

In March 2021, the Oxford-based bio-tech secured £27 million financing led by Forbion Capital Partners with support from the company’s existing leading investors.

The investment will fund Phase 2 human clinical studies.

The Native Antigen Company Ltd

The Native Antigen Company is one of the world’s leading suppliers of antigens used in antibody testing kits for research into emerging diseases.

In 2020, the University of Birmingham spin-out was one of the first companies to start production of the Covid-19 antigens. Its SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Assay Development Kits were recognised by The Scientist – the leading publication for life science professionals – as a Top 10 Innovation.

The company also played a key role in supplying products to combat both the Zika and Dengue virus in 2016 and 2018.

In January the Kidlington-based company announced the expansion of its norovirus-like particle range, with the addition of six new reagents, including four which are unique to the market.

Vaccitech Plc

This clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company was responsible for the technology behind the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.

Vaccitech was founded in 2016 by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Professor Adrian Hill as a spin out from Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, one of the world’s most prestigious vaccine centres.

Last April the company raised $166.5 million in a Series B private financing, and $110.5 million on its debut on the New York’s NASDAQ.

"... responsible for the technology behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine”

The company’s proprietary platform comprises Chimpanzee Adenovirus Oxford (ChAdOx) and Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA), two non-replicating viral vectors which safely mimic viral infection in human cells and elicit high magnitude, durable, targeted CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses and antibodies to clear foreign pathogens and tumours. The company is set move into a new 31,000 sq ft headquarters and laboratory at Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire.

Vicon Motion Systems Ltd

Vicon is an award-winning provider of motion capture systems for the life sciences, media and entertainment, location-based virtual reality and engineering industries.

While Vicon officially began trading in 1984, its original product was first introduced to the market in 1979. The system was manufactured by a subsidiary of Oxford Instruments, called Oxford Medical Systems (which became Oxford Dynamics). Following a management buyout Oxford Dynamics became Oxford Metrics, and Vicon was born.

Vicon also offers a motion analysis mobile app called Capture.U that displays real-time data overlaid on video, enabling users to make informed decisions – on the pitch, trackside, poolside, courtside or in the lab. Capture.U’s intuitive display and evolving range of capture modes make it an ideal tool for researchers, students, coaches and physiotherapists studying athletes’ movement in their natural environments. In March, Vicon released an app update to offer an accessible and practical way to learn about inertial measurement units. This helps school and university students develop on the theory-based applied learning model as they will learn using the sensors by applying them to human movements.

This feature has been published inside our May Issue of Business & Innovation Magazine in association with Freeths and Milton Park.

To see the feature in print, read our latest edition online.