Innovation Integrator: PepMoTec

After all, it is the shared efforts of SMEs, universities, and the large corporates of the world that drive the change that can truly benefit peoples’ lives.

This is particularly true for sectors that require investment and unique expertise, such as the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. That is why, back in January 2017, CPI launched the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries Innovation Support Programme (CSP): a project to provide innovation support to SMEs, academic spin-out companies, and research groups that operate within the industry.

The programme draws on one of CPI’s most insightful business tools: the Innovation Integrator®. The registered model is based upon the experience CPI has gained over the last 14 years in supporting its clients. 

The model allows businesses to validate and establish robust strategies by highlighting products, process, and technology gaps that must be addressed to enable progression from invention to commercialisation.

PepMoTec

PepMoTec is an emerging bioscience spin-out company from Durham University.

A leading figure in the field of peptide chemistry, Associate Professor Steven Cobb, has been awarded several prestigious fellowships throughout his academic career, including an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Fellowship, and a Ramsay Memorial Trust Research Fellowship. Steven has been at Durham University since 2007 and he is now the Director of the Biophysical Sciences Institute, his pioneering research has raised over £10M in grant funding and now led to the creation of PepMoTec, an academic spin out company that, with the help of CPI, will modify and optimise peptides and proteins for therapeutic actions.

The Problem

As academics first and foremost, there was initial trepidation within the PepMoTec team of how to best transition their expertise into a commercial company. 

Integrating with CPI

The group had the required patents and funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), but they required further support to develop their innovation strategy and business plan to secure private investment and accelerate commercialisation.

How CPI helped

Cobb and his colleagues reached out to CPI and PepMoTec soon became a CSP partner. Using the Innovation Integrator, CPI Innovation experts assessed the team’s resources, potential, and target market to generate an effective business plan that helped to highlight client considerations and long-term ambitions. 

“As an academic, you tend to think that everything you do is great,” said Dr Steven Cobb, ​“and you’re maybe overselling what you have and not looking at the industrial need of the technology.

“So I think it’s great to have someone to pick holes in the plan and ask, ​‘is this actually what the industry wants and does this fill a commercial need?’

“That’s what Anand and John [Strategy and Innovation Managers at CPI] were really good at doing.

“As an academic looking to set up my first company, I found the entire experience to be invaluable.”

Integrating with CPI

These case studies demonstrate how CPI can provide support and resources to companies at any stage of development.

CPI enables companies to understand the innovation gap in their business to accelerate product or process commercialisation. 

For emerging spin-out companies, such as PepMoTec, the world of business and bioscience commercialisation can be incredibly daunting. 

But thanks to CPI and its Innovation Integrator scheme, PepMoTec (info@​pepmotec.​com) is on its way to serving the needs of its clients and transforming the field of peptide therapeutics.