It was celebrations all round recently as UMIP enters its sixth year whilst sister firm UMIC celebrated the tenth anniversary of The Manchester Incubator Building and its own fifth birthday. The two organisations came together for a joint event at the CTF building on Grafton Street on September 23rd which was headed by Sir William Castell, Chairman of the Wellcome Trust.
During the event, UMIC and UMIP took stock of the achievements following five years of successful bioscience and technology commercialisation and incubation since the 2004 creation of the new University of Manchester. UMIP is widely recognised in the UK and beyond for the quality of its IP management, with the University investing over £1.5 million in ‘proof of principle’ bioscience projects alone.
UMIP Chairman Peter Sanderson addressed the delegates and said: “In addition to helping to secure over £35 million for various sources including share sales and IP grants, UMIP has built a share asset value of £9 million, represented by 20 spin-outs employing over 500 people. These spin-outs alone have an annual combined sales turnover of £17 million, and they’ve also placed about £2 million of research contracts with the University. We currently manage over 150 licence and patent cases, and there’s a very strong pipeline of more to come. UMIP working together with The University of Manchester and UMIC has certainly had five years of positive impact in the northwest region and beyond, and we are looking forward to the future.”
Sir William Castell’s plenary address took note of the global economic drivers for new technology and commercial opportunities in food security, bio-fuels and clean technology, with Manchester in good shape to capitalise on these opportunities through its business incubation and research commercialisation activities. Sir William also paid tribute to what UMIC had helped to achieve in the past ten years, pointing to the breaking on the day news of DxS’s £80m acquisition by German diagnostic testing giant Qiagen.
The Manchester Incubator Building provided the first dedicated facility for biotechnology firms starting up in the northwest region. Thirty three bioscience companies are trading from UMIC’s facilities, and have created more than 850 high-value jobs. Bioscience now represents a significant area of economic activity in the northwest, attracting in excess of £300 million in financing and investment deals. Dr Martino Picardo UMIC’s managing director commented: “The event has showcased to local and national audiences what vision, focus and hard work can achieve. From the vision in 1999 that Manchester should build and develop world-class biotechnology businesses and facilities to the numerous success stories and wealth creation that our bio-entrepreneurs represent to the city and to the northwest region.”
Sir William Castell & Prof Rod Coombs Sir William Castell & DR Martino Picardo, MD, UMIC
 
Technology Transfer; IP commercialisation
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