Member Article

Bio-tech network receives funding to build from Manchester to developing world

With globalisation comes global opportunities, and for molecular and cellular biologist, Masih Alam, it’s important that those global opportunities include knowledge sharing and co-operation.

Manchester-based Immunosys, the consultancy business he founded with his wife, fellow scientist, Rawshan Choudhury, in 2012, is focused on helping bio-pharma and bio-agri businesses in the developing world meet the challenges and harness the opportunities of a global market.

The company turned to Enterprise Europe Network Northwest (EENW) to help develop the relationships in Europe that will help Immunosys achieve those aims.

While Immunosys is a commercially focused business, it is also a company founded on the principle that scientific achievement should be a collaborative process with benefits that go beyond corporate profits.

Explained Masih: “Many bio-pharma and bio-agri companies in the developing world have been manufacturing products under license that were developed in the west by global players.

“While this makes the science available to a wider demographic at a more affordable price, it does not provide scope for further expansion of these companies or for further development of these specialist areas of scientific innovation.

“Our goal is to help these companies to nurture their research and development capabilities using EU standards of best practice and compliance and to facilitate working partnerships between such companies and research groups based in the UK and EU.

“By working in this way we can open up opportunities for research groups in Europe and give companies in the developing world the tools they need to expand.”

The first market identified by Masih as an ideal location to apply Immunosys’ business model was Bangladesh. Boasting the world’s 7th largest population, the country has a homogenous language and a large consumer market and has already become a significant player in global bio-pharma and bio-agri production.

Masih said: “Bangladesh had all the attributes we were looking for: a wide selection of businesses that could benefit from our input and a broad consumer base to buy any products that they develop.

“What we needed was links to research groups and scientists so that we could go to Bangladeshi companies with a full proposition including business consultancy and research resources.”

Masih’s goal was to build up a network of scientific associates in Europe who could be brought in to meet the specific business development needs of individual Bangladeshi clients.

He added: “The UK is a centre of excellence for bio-tech with an excellent reputation overseas and we had already built up a strong network, but we wanted to extend that network across Europe.

“We already knew of EENW through work we had done in the past with UKTI so it made sense to consult their website as a first port of call.”

Immunosys found the EEN website extremely useful and identified a number of suitable companies that could be potential partners, contacting several of these with a view to discussing opportunities.

One of them, a Dutch company called Abundnz, has now signed a partnership deal with Immunosys and will work with the company on research projects.

From here, Immunosys continued to work with EENW to identify more potential partners, accessing a number of EENW events to develop contacts with relevant companies in the UK and across Europe.

Masih continues: “We are keen to develop greater links in key locations including Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands and we have made lots of new connections through EENW events.

“For example, a partnering event held at the Biomedica Summit helped us build a relationship with a Lithuanian company with which we are developing a new partnership.”

In addition to working with EENW to help identify potential business partners, Immunosys has also been benefitting from the organisation’s advice on funding opportunities.

“We are working with EENW to identify research grants and find out more about EU grant opportunities such as Horizon 2020, the €80 billion research funding pot designed to help SMEs like us get ideas off the ground,” Masih continues.

“EENW is not only signposting us to funding opportunities like Horizon 2020, Eurostars and regional funding grants, but is also providing guidance on how to apply for these sources of finance, which will help us maximise our chances of success .”

As Immunosys continues to expand its European network of associates, the company is also now looking to extend its client-base in Asia, with Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea all high on its list for future ventures.

“Our aim is to generate work for EU companies in developing markets while aiding our clients in Asia to compete globally,” Masih adds. “Thanks to EENW that proposition is now gathering pace.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .