Renovo chief set for growth
It was a close encounter with a dead alligator that gave Mark Ferguson, the founder and CEO of Manchester-based biotechnology company Renovo, his big break in business.
Juvista - Renovo's lead drug - was the result of an accidental discovery more than 20 years ago when Ferguson, then a dental scientist, was conducting research into how to correct cleft palates. His research led him to alligators because their palates are remarkably similar to those of humans. While dissecting alligator embryos, he realised that, unlike the adult animals, they did not scar.
Ferguson discovered that the protein responsible for the scar-free healing in embryos, Transforming Growth Factor Beta 3, was present in small amounts in adults but in large amounts in embryos. His team isolated the protein and developed ways of manufacturing it artificially. It became the cutting-edge biotechnological breakthrough on which Renovo was built. Juvista's scarring reduction credentials have been evaluated in 16 clinical trials and by the end of the year the injectable drug will move into phase three of development.
Today, Renovo, which was established in 2000 and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2006, employs 180 staff. It has already signed an exclusive licensing agreement worth US$825 million with pharmaceutical giant Shire to develop and commercialise Juvista in every country outside the EU, while retaining the rights to the drug itself.
Other drugs in the pipeline include Zesteem, for accelerating healing after accidents or surgery, Prevascar, a scar reduction and prevention treatment with potential application in the nerve repair market, and Juvidex, which accelerates the healing of the surface layer of the skin, for example, after peels or laser treatment.
With his company's lead product due to hit the market soon, and a full pipeline of biotechnology innovations on the way, Ferguson says he has rarely been busier.
"There's a lot we have to do externally in terms of educating people and ensuring they have appropriate expectations. Because we don't yet have a product for sale, people's view of the value of Renovo is down to whether they think we'll be successful in getting our products approved by global drug regulators and how big our future sales will be. Our proposition is all about capital growth," he explains.
A large part of this is ensuring clinical trial findings are not misinterpreted, as any negative publicity could shake investor confidence and send the company's share price crashing. It's a role that Ferguson relishes. "I always say I've got the best job in the world," he says. "I'm involved in cutting edge research and developing things that help people - and at the same time I'm making money for investors, employees and myself."
Ferguson seems so at home in his CEO's skin it's easy to forget that he hasn't always worked in a commercial role. He originally trained in dentistry at Queen's University Belfast before moving into the field of regenerative medical research. He has published more than 250 academic papers and books and been awarded numerous international research prizes, including the 2002 European Science Prize.
That he has attracted big name investors to Renovo like Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, T Rowe Price, Legal and General and JP Morgan, suggests that Ferguson has mastered the transition from laboratory to boardroom and that Juvista could be one of the few drugs in the biotech pipeline with blockbuster potential.
He believes the company's location in the incubator building adjacent to the University of Manchester has been helpful in attracting this level of investment.
"Investors care about your ability to recruit the right people - clever, motivated, hard-working people with the appropriate skills are crucial. We've had no problems recruiting these people to Manchester from all over the world, as well as from the University of Manchester itself, which is renowned for its research expertise in regenerative medicine," he says.
