Ian Tomlinson Joins SBC Board as GlaxoSmithKline Representative Director

STEVENAGE, England, October 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Stakeholder representative to guide development of UK's first open innovation bioscience campus

Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC), the UK's first open innovation bioscience campus, is pleased to announce that Ian Tomlinson, Senior Vice President, Head of Biopharmaceuticals R&D and Worldwide Business Development at GlaxoSmithKline, has been appointed to its Board.

In his role as GSK Representative Director, Dr Tomlinson will bring his experience of innovation in both the large and small company environment to SBC. Prior to joining GSK, he spent 11 years at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.  In 2000, together with Sir Gregory Winter, he co-founded Domantis Limited to develop a new class of drugs based on domain antibodies. Domantis was acquired by GSK in 2007. Following Dr Tomlinson's appointment to the SBC Board, Dr Allan Baxter, formerly Chairman and GSK representative, becomes Independent Chairman.

Dr Martino Picardo, CEO of Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, said, "Having Ian, with his entrepreneurial and large company expertise, on our Board as a stakeholder representative is a great advantage as we work to make Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst a compelling offering for life sciences companies. In particular, development of our open innovation offering will be greatly enhanced by the network he brings in his business development role at GSK."

Dr Ian Tomlinson added, "Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst will be an important player in the UK life sciences ecosystem, and I am delighted to be working with the team to build on the progress it has made so far. In this role I will be helping to bring new companies to the site, as well as encouraging scientific collaboration to advance translation of research ideas and early discovery into new medicines and technologies."

Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst is a joint venture between the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills, GlaxoSmithKline, the Wellcome Trust, the East of England Development Agency and the Technology Strategy Board. The £38m development will be an independent bioscience facility and is due to open in Q1 2012.

Photos available upon request

Notes to Editors

Ian Tomlinson - biography

Ian Tomlinson is SVP, Head of Biopharmaceuticals R&D and Worldwide Business Development (WWBD) and sits on GSK's R&D Executive Committee (RADEX). 

In his Biopharm R&D role Ian combines the resources and development expertise of a large pharmaceutical company, with the entrepreneurial spirit of a smaller biotech organization, bringing early research, late-stage biopharm development and manufacturing expertise into one organization.  This ambitious integrated strategy has taken GSK to a leading position in biopharmaceuticals, deriving over 20 percent of the pipeline from biopharmaceuticals.

In his business development role, Ian has global responsibility for all Pharmaceuticals R&D related business development activities for GSK. His team is committed to finding talent, ideas, and new medicines beyond the wall of GSK's internal Research & Development community.

Ian graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, UK. He then spent 11 years at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where he initially worked on the completion of the sequencing and mapping of all human antibody genes, and latterly on engineering recombinant antibodies. In 2000, together with Sir Gregory Winter, he co-founded Domantis Limited to develop an entirely new class of drugs based on the smallest fragments of antibodies, called Domain Antibodies, or "dAbs". Domantis was acquired by GSK in 2007.

About Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst

Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst is the UK's first open innovation bioscience campus, pioneering a unique culture to drive early stage drug discovery and development. It is backed by £38m of funding from its founding partners - GlaxoSmithKline, the Wellcome Trust, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Technology Strategy Board and the East of England Development Agency. Scheduled to open in Q1 2012, buildings in Phase 1 of the development consist of an Incubator, an Accelerator and a Hub, covering 60,000 sq ft of laboratory, office and networking space. The independent facility is expected to house a range of companies, from virtual and start-up firms to those which are more established. Located on the GlaxoSmithKline Stevenage site, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst is in the unique position of operating in proximity to the expertise and resources of a major pharmaceutical company, close to both London and Cambridge. For more information, please go to http://www.stevenagecatalyst.com.

About Open Innovation

Firms using Open Innovation (OI) combine their own R&D with externally sourced ideas and expertise. OI is characterised by highly effective use of connections and networks to exchange knowledge and ideas, external partners being involved at all stages of product development, equitable win-win business relationships, and new business models to maximise the value of intellectual property and other assets.  Examples in various sectors have shown that the benefits of OI include reduced time to market for new products and services, access to new markets, improved innovation success rates and increased profits.  SBC will promote use of Open Innovation within the life sciences sector, connecting SMEs with an active network consisting of GlaxoSmithKline and its other stakeholders, academia, charities, other businesses and funding bodies.  The term 'Open Innovation' and related research into its practice has been developed extensively by Professor Henry Chesbrough, Executive Director of the Program in Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley (http://openinnovation.berkeley.edu).

About GlaxoSmithKline

GSK aims to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. This mission gives us the purpose to develop innovative medicines and products that help millions of people around the world. Every hour we spend more than £300,000 (US$562,000) in our search for new medicines that can make a difference to patients.We are one of the pharmaceutical industry leaders, with an estimated seven per cent of the world's pharmaceutical market and one of the few companies researching both medicines and vaccines for the World Health Organization's three priority diseases - HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. As a company with a firm foundation in science, we have a flair for research and a track record of turning that research into powerful, marketable drugs.

About the Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust's breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk

About EEDA

EEDA's mission has been to improve the economy of the East of England through helping businesses prosper, supporting people to be the best they can and breathing new life into places. Working with others we have helped improve the lives of thousands of people with investments that will continue to have an impact for decades to come. EEDA works across the six counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk , and unitary authorities of Central Bedfordshire, Bedford , Luton, Peterborough , Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. In the Emergency Budget of 22 June 2010, the government confirmed its intention to abolish all regional development agencies (RDAs) and replace them with Local Enterprise Partnerships. EEDA will close by March 2012. Visit http://www.eeda.org.uk to find out more.

About the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is building a dynamic and competitive UK economy by: creating the conditions for business success; promoting innovation, enterprise and science; and giving everyone the skills and opportunities to succeed. To achieve this it will foster world-class universities and promote an open global economy. BIS - Investing in our future.

About the Technology Strategy Board

The Technology Strategy Board works to drive economic growth by making the UK a global leader in innovation. Established by the government, the Technology Strategy Board helps business to innovate faster and more effectively than would otherwise be possible. It uses its expertise, connections and funding to enable collaborations and partnerships between businesses, researchers and government, and to help business to create innovative products and services which will meet market needs, tackle the challenges of our time and build the economy of tomorrow.

For more information, please contact:
Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst
Martino Picardo, CEO                                      +44(0)1438-768551
Emma Palmer Foster, Strategic Communications Consultant   +44(0)7880-787185
comms@stevenagecatalyst.com