Business and management consultancy and related services

Tender description

A professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Roz Anderson joined Sunderland University in 1987 and in her 31 year career as a researcher worked on the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, diagnosis of bacterial infections, psoriasis and cancer, but her particular passion was the battle against the rare genetic disorder ‘Cystinosis’. For the last 20 years of her life Roz undertook research to find a better, more efficiently targeted method of delivering cysteamine — which is a toxic and noxious drug used in the management of the rare life limiting genetic disorder Cystinosis. The pre-clinical development of CF10 will provide a GMP-compliant synthetic route, GLP toxicology, toxicokinetic and safety data and a clinical trial proposal. The results will support a 1st in human CF10 clinical trial. Early pre-clinical trials suggest that the bio-availability of cysteamine delivered by CF10 is twice that achieved by current treatment. This improvement, together with its more efficient mode of delivery, allows for a significant reduction in both the required dose and the frequency of dose, thereby leading to an anticipated reduction in side effects and better adherence to the medication regime. The University established the spin-out company, ‘Sundara Pharmaceuticals’, which has been formed with the brief ‘to enhance the research before undertaking pre-clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approval and either bringing CF10 to market itself or selling to a larger pharma business.’ The formation of ‘Sundara Pharmaceuticals’ facilitated a 1 560 000 GBP Medical Research Grant award to undertake pre-clinical development that will take the drug to prodrug clinical trials, the award runs for a period of 24 months and the project commenced October 2018. Sundara would now like to bring in a CEO to support the growth and development of the organisation. 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.