york-england.com

A move to new premises is the latest step for the growing York office of the Bridgehead Pharmalicensing Group.

The Bridgehead Pharmalicensing Group, founded in May 2003, is the result of a merger between York-based Pharmalicensing and Bridgehead Technologies, based in Melton Mowbray and Switzerland. This combination of two leading biopharmaceutical business development companies, which continue to trade under their well-recognized and internationally respected names, has created an ideal synergy. Pharmalicensing provides pharmaceutical companies with a wide-ranging forum to exchange partnering wants and needs with a large audience, and Bridgehead Technologies offers a tailored service on an individual client-by-client basis.

The merged company is launching new services in publishing and powerful tools to help the international licensing and technology transfer community for medical and life sciences companies.

"We are delighted to be working together", said Steve Poile, founder of Pharmalicensing and Director of Product Development. "This expansion in York is a strategic move for the Group as we expect to double turnover from this office next year and continue to grow strongly thereafter."

"This merger was part of a strategy to develop a full service business, supplying the needs of biotech and pharma companies worldwide and the York office is a key part of this", added David Alcraft, co-founder of Bridgehead Technologies and CEO of the merged company.

To complement this change, the York office is moving to York Business Park, Nether Poppleton.

"The extra space in the newly-built Westminster Place complex is needed to accommodate additional IT and sales staff, as well as staff transferring from the current premises in Clifton Moor", Mr Alcraft explained.

"The move into prestigious new offices allows us to continue our expansion in terms of providing services on a global scale to the biopharmaceutical and medical sector, but it also allows us to support the growing number of companies in the Yorkshire region", commented Mr Poile.

Profiles of the two companies

Bridgehead Technologies www.bridgehead.uk.com

Bridgehead Technologies' 45 staff and associates have over 500 years combined experience in the healthcare industry. The services supplied by these very experienced individuals can be divided into four categories:

Technical and commercial evaluation

A core component of Bridgehead Technologies' activity is the technical and commercial evaluation of new ideas, products, technologies and development programmes, to aid clients in planning, prioritisation and investment decisions.

Strategy and planning

With over 500 years combined experience in the healthcare industry, Bridgehead consultants can provide independent and objective analysis, backed up by sound commercial judgement, on topics from early stage support to commercialisation strategy and R&D portfolio management.

Licensing and alliances

Staff at Bridgehead Technologies can provide a comprehensive, customised licensing service, including search and find, disposals, deal benchmarking, due diligence and valuation of in-licensing opportunities.

Pricing and reimbursement strategy

The pricing and reimbursement team, headed up by Jim Furniss, past Head of the UK NHS Pharma Industry Branch, can advise companies in pricing and reimbursement strategies at all stages of product development and commercialisation.

Pharmalicensing pharmalicensing.com

The York office is not only the base for the group sales and marketing teams - it is also the home of Pharmalicensing. Founded by Steve Poile, Pharmalicensing is a key destination on the Internet for executives interested in and involved with partnering, licensing and business development, and was rated the number one IP exchange by Argus Insights. The role of Pharmalicensing is to support licensor companies in marketing partnering opportunities, and help licensee companies and institutions to identify, track and secure prospects.

Over 16,000 global executives use Pharmalicensing's services, an increase of 23% since the beginning of 2003, and about 12,000 users receive the weekly email newsletter. The website includes 22,000+ pages of news, reports, intelligence, and partnering opportunities, and visitors from over 30,000 different companies view the site on a monthly basis.

Specific services from the Pharmalicensing website include: licensing news and feature articles, directories of companies and outsourcing solution providers, licensing opportunity listings, events diary and regular customised email alerts.

As well as the web-based outputs, Pharmalicensing produces a monthly magazine, 'Partnering Focus', and is developing a range of reports for licensing and partnering executives. Partnering Focus is available online and as hardcopy, and includes news, features, partnering strategies, company profiles and licensing opportunities from staff writers and industry experts. The first of the reports, 'The Licensing Agreement in Pharmaceutical Business Development', is a 'how to' guide to writing partnering contracts written by leading industry lawyer Paul Ranson. The report, available in electronic and hardcopy, was published in September 2003. Future report titles will include regional and therapeutic area reviews, and a series of pharmaco-legal guides co-published with Paul Ranson and PharmaLaw.

In support of its business model, Pharmalicensing recently conducted a survey of its clients. There was an excellent response of 640 users, who reported over 220 deals exclusive to Pharmalicensing over the 12 months before the survey. Growing and changing From its origins as a start-up in 1998, Pharmalicensing has grown, changed and evolved into part of a global company providing a 'soup to nuts' service for research institutions, pharmaceutical, medical and biotech companies. Pharmalicensing has retained its North Yorkshire roots and is firmly committed to supporting and being part of the rapidly expanding pharma and biotech community in Northeast England.

This article first appeared on york-england.com (www.york-england.com) in the Bioscience and Healthcare section.

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