Medical Research Council Technology

LifeArc (the new name for Medical Research Council Technology)
Industry Life science medical research charity
Founded 2000
Headquarters London, UK
Number of locations
 London, Stevenage, Edinburgh
Key people
 CEO: Dave Tapolczay, Executive Director Diagnostics & Science Foresight: Michael Dalrymple, Executive Director Technology Transfer and Business Development: Andrew Farquharson, Executive Director Drug Discovery: Justin Bryans, Chief Financial Officer: Andrew Mercieca, General Counsel & Company Secretary: Edward Bliss, Executive Director Human Resources: Amanda Cowley
Services IP management, drug discovery, diagnostics development, antibody engineering, charity portfolio review
Number of employees
 180
Website lifearc.org

LifeArc, the new name for Medical Research Council Technology (MRC Technology, MRCT) is a British life science medical research charity. It was established in 2000 to translate the work of UK Medical Research Council research scientists.[1]

Today LifeArc provides intellectual property identification, protection and commercialisation, technology development, early stage drug discovery and antibody humanization services for the MRC, academia, biotechnology and pharmaceutical organisations and charities, aiming to move promising medical research forward into viable and accessible patient treatments. [2] Profits from LifeArc's activities are reinvested into further research.


History

MRC Technology started as the Medical Research Council Liaison Office in 1984, and in 1986 the MRC Collaborative Centre, a laboratory-based technology transfer function, was founded. In 1993, the Liaison Office became MRC's Technology Transfer Group, responsible for office based patenting and licensing.

MRC Technology was set up as a charity and a company limited by guarantee in 2000 to incorporate patenting, licensing and research functions.[3]

On 15 June 2017 it officially became LifeArc.

Activities

LifeArc has humanised a number of antibodies on behalf of other organisations. Four of these, Tysabri (Biogen Idec/Elan), Actemra (Hoffmann-La Roche/Chugai), Entyvio (Millenium Pharma/Takeda) and Keytruda (Merck/MSD), are now on the market.[4]

In 2010, LifeArc signed a deal with the drug company AstraZeneca to share chemical compounds to help identify potential treatments for serious diseases.[5][6]

LifeArc is a member of a Global Drug Discovery Alliance along with the Centre for Drug Research and Development, the Scripps Research Institute, Cancer Research Technology, the Lead Discovery Centre and the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery, dedicated to translating health research into new medicines and working together to improve the conversion of global early-stage research into much-needed new therapies.[7]

Dementia Consortium was launched in December 2013 - a unique £3m drug discovery collaboration between Alzheimer's Research UK, LifeArc and pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Lilly.

Neurodegeneration Medicines Acceleration Programme was established in November 2014 to revive promising drugs for brain diseases, which have stalled for non-scientific reasons.

Key achievements

  • Over 400 commercial licences signed
  • Helped launch 12 drugs on the market
  • Helped form 18 start ups
  • Generated over £600 million in revenues for the MRC
  • Humanized two antibodies now on the market
  • Humanized six antibodies currently in clinical trials

References

  1. ↑ Paul Feldman, Corinna Lotz, A world to win: a rough guide to a future without global capitalism, 2004, Lupus Books, ISBN 0952345412, 9780952345411
  2. ↑ "CEO of MRC Technology". Research Europe. Retrieved 2012-01-03.
  3. ↑ Sir David Cooksey (2006-01-12). "A Review of UK Health Funding" (PDF). The Stationery Office. p. 20.
  4. ↑ "Therapeutic Antibodies and the LMB". MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
  5. ↑ Mark Wigglesworth, Terry Wood, eds, Management of Chemical and Biological Samples for Screening Applications, 2012, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 3527645276, 9783527645275, google books
  6. ↑ "AstraZeneca and MRC Technology Form Strategic Alliance in Discovery Research, Utilising Shared Compound Libraries". AstraZeneca. Retrieved 2013-01-03.
  7. ↑ Edelson, Steve (2013). "Translational Globetrotting". SciBX (Science-Business Exchange). 6 (4). doi:10.1038/scibx.2013.78.
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