Business and management consultancy and related services

Tender description

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. It develops slowly and can go undetected for many years. It has been estimated that the annual economic burden of the disease in the UK exceeds GBP 269 million. This cost is expected to increase due to the rising prevalence of the disease, attributed to an ageing population. Current diagnosis relies on a combination of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing (which has low specificity and no prognostic value) and tissue biopsies (which are expensive, can be painful and only provide a snapshot of the tumour). A major problem is the difficulty distinguishing indolent benign (benign prostate hyperplasia (BHP)) and aggressive tumours. This leads to over-diagnosis, resulting in unnecessary biopsies, but also means some aggressive cancers are missed. The Newcastle University team have developed a simple in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) that looks for three protein biomarkers. This diagnostic test ‘GlycoScore’ is based on a simple protein detection method (ELISA), using patient blood, which is widely used in clinics across the world, increasing the chances of adoption. Importantly, we have demonstrated that our diagnostic is superior to the current PSA blood test. Analysis comparing benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer showed the GlycoScore had a positive predictive value (PPV) of 93 %, whereas PSA had a PPV of 68 %. The team has strong links with clinicians and patient groups and has been working with these stakeholders to better understand the current care pathway and how GlycoScore could be best implemented in a clinical environment. The initial brief of the executive will be to: 1) produce a viable 5 year business plan; 2) obtain university approval for the venture; 3) (a) act for the company in the spin-out legal process and address all company formation matters, (b) obtain founder academics’ and Newcastle University (including the Head of Company Creation) approval for appointment as CEO, (c) provide to the appropriate university all matters necessary for ERDF or Research England reporting requirements; 4) secure (venture capital and other) funding. 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 licenced 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 and Research England reporting requirements; (e) secure (venture capital and/or other) funding in accordance with the business plan.