Business and management consultancy and related services

Tender description

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — as with most other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s — is a major medical challenge and is having an ever-increasing impact upon the lives of patients, carers and indeed of society as a whole. Scientists at Durham (Chemistry Department) and Aberdeen Universities have recently designed, synthesised and identified a lead drug candidate with the potential for establishing a new treatment approach for ALS and with a longer-term potential of being effective for other neurodegenerative diseases. The technology is now being patented and we are ready to develop a commercial vehicle to drive the drug development programme forwards and raise the necessary investment required for the next stages. The need for an experienced Business Executive/CEO, who has already delivered drugs to the market in the neurodegenerative area, is essential to support the commercial team and especially the CEO directly. Although two of the team have commercial (spinout) experience (e.g. as CTO of LightOx who are successfully raising second phase major investment currently for LightOx), the successful launch of market leading drugs and the raising of the finance to make that happen is needed to successfully take the company forward. In the longer term (such as Phase III raise of ca. GBP 100+ million), such an executive might well be appointed as CEO, but in these early development stages, advise and business support is required. Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland and Northumbria universities, in common with universities throughout the UK, have advanced relevant systems and procedures and also dedicate significant public resource to both research and commercialisation of that research. A key route to commercialisation is the creation of a new business (a spin-out company) wherein the intellectual property (IPR) developed exclusively licensed to a university start-up company in exchange for (founders) shares in that company. The universities ill engage suitably qualified and experienced executives through the DPS as and when required over the DPS period. The specific requirements will be detailed in each further competition. The initial brief of the executive for which he/she will be paid, dependent upon the scope of the specific project engagement sought, either a payment or a combination of a payment and a share/stock option will typically be to: (a) produce a viable business plan; (b) obtain university approval for the venture; (c) act for the company in the spin-out legal process and address all the company formation matters; (d) provide to the appropriate university all matters necessary for ESIF, ERDF and Research England reporting requirements; (e) secure (venture capital and/or other) funding in accordance with the business plan.