It was a miserable Games, top-heavy with corporate sponsorship, swimming in
Coca-Cola and echoing to complaints about everything from the athletes’
village to the quality of food, and it ended with Britain’s finest returning
from the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 with their tails between their legs. Their
medals total of 16, with only Redgrave and Pinsent striking a rowing gold,
was their worst haul since 1952.
Compare that with the glory of Beijing, dripping in 19 golds, 47 medals
overall, of heroics almost everywhere you looked, from the velodrome to the
shores of Qingdao to the glowing Ice Cube pool to the masterpiece Bird’s
Nest stadium a stone’s throw away. The team returned to Heathrow to a wall
of microphones and a fusillade of flashbulbs.
The difference between the two, according to Professor Sir Christopher Evans
OBE, is funding. Cash. Investment. Money. And it is a lesson that he wants
to apply to Britain’s flagging biotech industry.
Moreover, he knows about both areas well. The chief executive of Excalibur,
the fund manager, has been one of the driving forces behind the UK biotech
industry for years - and he has recently returned from a trip to Beijing.
“I spoke to people from Team GB out there and every time you ask them what the
difference is between now and then they say that it’s funding,” Sir Chris
said. “We would have not had this success without financial investment.
“UK biotech is the same. At the minute, everything’s all doom and gloom, but
with funding directed to the right places, we could build a vibrant sector.
We could be second only to the States. Come 2012, the sector could be turned
upside down, but what we need now is big investment and big incentives.”
But in a credit crunch? Much has been written about the state of the industry,
which has suffered as investors become ever more risk-averse and small
companies fail to raise cash to fund clinical trials of their drugs. There
are now few mid-cap biotechs and several of those seem likely to be bought
out soon. Some of the minnows are running out of cash. Two companies, Ardana
and Phoqus, have entered administration this year. Biotech share prices have
been plummeting.
Yet Sir Chris believes that there is an answer. Together with other leading
lights in the biotech universe, such as Chris Collins, chief executive of
Nomura Code, and Jeremy Curnock Cook, executive chairman of Bioscience
Managers, he is planning to write to the Prime Minister in the next couple
of months with proposals to set up two new biotech funds worth close to £500
million in total. Under the proposals, the Government would contribute
around half the cash needed, with the rest being made up by private
investors. One would be to encourage consolidation in the sector, the other
to fund the growth of the mid-caps.
It is difficult to see where a cash-strapped Labour Government would find the
money for this, but Sir Chris is brimming with enthusiasm for his ideas
about a brave new biotech world: “People always ask why haven’t we got an
Amgen or a Genentech [large US biotechs] when we have brilliant science.
There’s a lot of reasons for this. There isn’t enough world-class
management, or enough ability to commercialise drugs. You have a lot of good
scientists and academics who can’t run a company. Also, if you’re any good,
you tend to get bought quickly.
“With these funds, industry experts would be able to direct cash to the right
places. This would also encourage underperforming small companies to
consolidate. The Government has to underpin the consolidation fund because
it was responsible for lots of start-ups and it’s many of these start-ups
that now have to consolidate.”
Recent deals such as Sanofi-Aventis snapping up Acambis, a vaccines
specialist, for £276 million this year illustrate his point about good
companies being bought quickly. If Protherics, which is the subject of
several bid approaches, is taken out as well, there will be only a few
biotechs in Britain with a market value of more than £100 million.
Excalibur itself recently sold the privately owned Piramed, which is
developing treatments for cancer and auto-immune diseases, to Roche for $160
million (£88 million). “The logical next step,” Sir Chris said, “would have
been to float it and there’s no way we could have got that off the ground in
the market at the moment.”
That Sir Chris has a high profile has not always been for reasons that he
would like to dwell on. He is quick to dismiss talk about the inquiry into
the cash for peerages scandal in 2006, when he was arrested, with a quick:
“Oh, nobody cares about that now.” He was cleared of any wrongdoing and the
loan has since been repaid.
Sir Chris is also the subject of a Serious Fraud Office inquiry into
activities at Merlin, although he vehemently denies allegations of
wrongdoing and has not been charged with anything.
A scientist by training, the son of a steel worker from Wales figured out
early that he wanted to turn scientific knowledge into profits. Starting
Chiroscience with £1 million in 1992, which is now part of UCB, one of
Europe’s most successful biopharma firms, is what he sees as his first big
triumph.
In 1996, he founded Merlin Biosciences, which recently took over Merchant
Ventures and became Excalibur. It manages more than €500 million (£403
million) invested in companies such as Vectura, one of Britain’s leading
biotechs, ReNeuron, which specialises in stem cell therapy for strokes, and
Ark Therapeutics, the gene therapy specialist.
Sir Tom Hunter, the Scottish billionaire, bought 20 per cent of Merlin in 2006
and continues to be involved in the business. Merlin also has a joint
venture with Sir Richard Branson for a stem cell bank, Virgin Health Bank.
With a finger in so many of British biotech pies, it is perhaps unsurprising
that Sir Chris wants to boost the sector as much as possible. Given the
glories of Team GB in China last month, it is equally unsurprising that he
is looking to Beijing 2008 as an example of how it can be done.
Sir Chris Evans
Born: Port Talbot, South Wales, 1957
Education: BSc Microbiology, Imperial College. PhD Biochemistry; files
five patents for Cadbury Schweppes while studying for PhD
Career:
1987 founds Enzymatix, one of the UK’s first biotech companies;
1992 splits up Enzymatix to form Celsis and Chiros (Chiroscience);
1993 floats Celsis International for £60 million;
1994 floats Chiroscience for £100 million;
1995 made OBE for services to bioscience;
1996 establishes Merlin Biosciences with £50 million VC fund;
2000 raises second Merlin fund;
2001 knighted for services to bioscience;
2004 raises third Merlin fund;
2006 Sir Tom Hunter buys 20 per cent of Merlin;
2008 establishes Excalibur
Q&A
If you could change one thing in the financial and commercial environment,
what would it be?
I would change the attitude of investors to embrace greater risk
Who is or was your mentor?
My PhD Professor, Colin Ratledge, who inspired me to “go out there and do it”
Does money motivate you?
Money motivates me, for the more you make the more you can invest. Money is a
fair reward for value creation
What was the most important event in your working life?
The successful flotation of Celsis International plc in 1993, as it opened the
door to the City for me and many others
What gadget must you have?
My BlackBerry
What does leadership mean to you?
Being inspirational and motivating others to achieve greatness when the sun
shines, whilst being strong and calm in adversity
Which business person do you most admire?
Bill Gates for creating such a phenomenal and inspiring business
How do you relax?
By plonking away on the guitar and going out shooting things
