The company, which was established in 2010 by former Merck & Co employees Drs Lorcan Sherry and John Waller, currently employs a team of eight staff and has an international client base covering a number of top 10 ranked pharmaceutical companies. They are moving to MediCity from their current home in the BioCity life sciences incubator.
Medicity Scotland is expected to enable the creation and growth of over 50 new healthcare businesses over the next 5 years, creating over 350 jobs as a result. Several further potential tenants and corporate partners are in the pipeline. It is housed within a fully refurbished, formerly vacant building on BioCity Scotland’s Newhouse site.
BioCity Scotland received £1.012m of capital investment from Glasgow and Clyde Valley City Deal, with funding from the UK Department of Business Innovation and Skills, to establish MediCity Scotland, with additional funding from North Lanarkshire Council and Scottish Enterprise. MediCity will follow a similar clustering model to the one already successfully in action at BioCity Scotland. It will bring together entrepreneurs, clinicians, developers, innovators and investors in a supportive environment which will facilitate and accelerate opportunities.
Partners will include 13 Scottish universities, NHS Scotland, and large and small companies. One of the benefits of clustering similar businesses together is that it leads to a higher survival rate – for example, businesses at BioCity Nottingham have a 91% survival rate.
Dr Diane Harbison, Managing Director at BioCity Scotland said: “I’m delighted that Medicity’s first tenant company is one I already know very well, as they’ve been with us at BioCity Scotland since just after we opened in 2012. I hope that many more exciting companies will follow their lead.
“MediCity Scotland will replicate what has already been achieved on the highly successful MediCity Nottingham site and enhance what BioCity Scotland can already offer MedTech projects or early start-up companies.
“MediCity Scotland will also have the advantage of being included in Scotland’s fifth Enterprise Area, a status which was announced recently by the Scottish Government. Having Enterprise Area Status means that businesses based at MediCity Scotland will be able to take advantage of business rates relief, faster planning applications, skills support and assistance in accessing international markets.
“These benefits all add up to MediCity Scotland being the ideal place for young and growing MedTech companies to base themselves in order to maximize their chances of success, take advantage of high-quality, newly refurbished facilities, and learn from a community of experts and peers.”
Dr Lorcan Sherry, Chief Scientific Officer of OracleBio said: “We have experienced a significant upturn in the demand for our histopathology image analysis services from the pharmaceutical industry over the last two years, especially in the field of oncology clinical trials. We attribute this success to the combination of our expert image analysis capabilities and our pharmaceutical research background, which has resulted in increased and repeat business from our clients. Consequently, OracleBio has experienced substantial growth and we now require more office space to accommodate our current and future expansion.
“We chose MediCity not just for the excellent facilities present there but also to allow OracleBio the opportunity to work alongside and collaborate with other Scottish medical companies in what will be a highly innovative and scientifically-focused environment.”
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