BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

MRC builds its own seed fund

February 2, 1998 8:00 AM UTC

OXFORD - Britain's Medical Research Council has finally launched its own £40 million ($65 million) biotechnology seed fund to finance start-ups emerging principally from its own institutions. Last week, the MRC and the newly created UK Medical Ventures Management Ltd. unveiled the UK Medical Ventures Fund, which is sponsored by Hoare Govett Corporate Finance Ltd. and has, to date, received commitments of £30 million, including £11 million from the U.K. investment capital group 3i, and financial backing from two undisclosed pharmaceutical companies.

The new fund is the brainchild of David Owen, the MRC's director for industrial collaboration and licensing. Owen's attempts to establish companies based on MRC-owned intellectual property were being thwarted by the apparent reluctance of venture capitalists to provide seed finance at rates that were acceptable to the publicly funded MRC. Although a number of companies have emerged from MRC-owned technology - including Cambridge Antibody Technology, Prolifix and RiboTargets- Owen believes that more could have been created if there had been more capital support...