Each year, Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) aims to connect the community by running a short series of weekly webinars: “MDC Connects”. We invite experts from the community and within MDC to deliver the sessions. Our goal is to educate, inform, and advise the community on the discovery of medicines.
2024 was an informative series outlining the journey from innovation to commercialisation.
1 UK Life Sciences – the Future is Bright | Tuesday 13 February
Webinar one UK Life Sciences – the Future is Bright; creating a richer national R&D pipeline, the current climate and tackling the challenges together.
Slides from webinar one:
Speakers:
- Professor Chris Molloy, CEO, Medicines Discovery Catapult
- Dr Tim Newton, Senior Market Analyst at Medicines Discovery Catapult
- Dr Nicola Heron, Chief Strategy Officer at Medicines Discovery Catapult
2 Securing Funds | Tuesday 20 February
Week two was a talk on securing funding. Here, we covered public funding, private funding and the importance of being ‘pitch-ready’.
Slides from webinar two:
Speakers:
- Samana Brannigan, Head of Health Technologies at Innovate UK
- Mark Wyatt, Investment Director, Northern Gritstone
- Michael Salako, Investment Director, Start Codon
3 Building the Science | Tuesday 27 February
Our third webinar is about building the science. Access to skills, in particular access to CROs, labs and infrastructure
Slides from webinar three:
Speakers:
- Mike Piper, Chief Commercial Officer, BioAscent
- Gareth Hampton, Head of Laboratory Services, Bruntwood SciTech
- Graeme Wilkinson, Head of Virtual R&D, Medicines Discovery Catapult
4 Protecting Intellectual Property | Tuesday 5 March
Protecting intellectual property is the title of week four. Identify the novelty, defining IP strategy in a TTO and securing IP.
Slides from webinar four:
Speakers:
- Catrina Carroll, Intellectual Property & Research Funding Lead, Medicines Discovery Catapult
- Geraint Lewis, Head of Enterprise Services, Newcastle University
- Anis Naidu, UK and European Patent Attorney for Marks & Clerk LLP
5 Commercialising your Innovation | Tuesday 12 March
The final webinar is about commercialising your innovation. Looking at options for commercialisation, in-licencing what does pharma look for? And a case study for successful commercialisation.
Slides from webinar five:
Speakers:
- Clare Terlouw, Head of LifeArc Ventures; LifeArc
- Lilian Alcaraz, Vice President, Early Innovation Partnering EMEA at Johnson & Johnson Innovation
- Rob Grundy, CEO, Intelligent OMICS
