PRESS RELEASE – DATED 3rd Dec 09
The University of Manchester’s award winning intellectual property company (UMIP) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Sharon O’ Kane as its Entrepreneur in Residence. Sharon will be engaging in an advisory role with UMIP to enhance the University’s spin-out company and licensing activities and to encourage intellectual property entrepreneurship at the University.
Sharon, who was recently named as Bionow / NWDA Biomedical Personality of the Year 2009, and was the Entrepreneur of the Year at the inaugural Northwest Women in Business Awards 2008, is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of University of Manchester spin-out company Renovo. Renovo Group plc is a biopharmaceutical company developing drugs for the reduction of scarring and has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2006.
Sharon said that she is looking forward to using the business skills and networks that she has developed from her involvement in the commercialisation of University-based research which led to the creation of Renovo and to raising the profile of entrepreneurship at the University. Sharon commented: “I am very pleased to have been asked to advise the University in this capacity. The University already has an excellent track record in innovation and entrepreneurship, with many successful spin-out companies. When I announced in September that I will move on from Renovo next February, I said I wanted to use my experience to help start and build companies, and this advisory role with UMIP is one in which I can immediately contribute and help UMIP continue to be successful in meeting its goals of creating spin-out companies, licensing IP and making an important contribution to the economy.”
Clive Rowland, UMIP’s CEO, said that he was delighted that Sharon had agreed to accept the appointment. “We are very much looking forward to working with Sharon. We have some specific ambitious funding initiatives in mind with which Sharon is ideally suited to help us. We are also asking Sharon to assist in improving our effectiveness and our success rate in drug discovery licensing.”
About Dr Sharon O’Kane
Sharon is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Renovo Group plc. Renovo is a specialty biopharmaceutical company based in Manchester and a leader in the discovery and development of drugs to reduce scarring. The company was founded in October 2000 raising £8m, a second round of financing ($23m) followed in 2003, and the company floated on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in 2006 raising a further £67.5m. In 2007, Renovo signed a licensing deal with Shire for their lead drug Juvista, worth up to $825m plus royalties. Renovo has won many awards, including the 2007 Biotechnica European Biotechnology Company of the Year Award and the CBI Emerging Company of the Year in 2006. Sharon attended the World Economic Forum in 2008 where Renovo was a Technology Pioneer.
As Chief Scientific Officer at Renovo, Sharon was responsible for establishing and building all the R&D capabilities and managing all areas of research and drug development in the company, from early stage discovery through all stages of preclinical development, into drug manufacturing and clinical trials supply. Sharon is an inventor on all of the company’s broad IP portfolio, and continues to publish in high profile journals. She is currently responsible for scientific oversight / strategic direction of all the company’s programmes, including identifying and evaluating external opportunities to ensure pipeline progression and is the Director responsible for IT and QA.
Before co-founding Renovo in October 2000, Sharon had a 15-year career based in academia, with many industrial collaborators, publications, invited speaking engagements, large peer-reviewed grants, and numerous international research awards and was latterly at the University of Manchester as a Senior Research Fellow, where she formed Renovo in the year 2000. She has a PhD and BSc (First Class) Honours degree from the University of Ulster.
Sharon was awarded a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors in 2006. Sharon delivers various masterclasses on spin-out company formation, entrepreneurship, and the role of women in business and in science; she spoke at last year’s Labour Party Conference in Manchester in a Smith Institute event on funding of start-up companies. Sharon is a judge of the BBSRC YES competition final, and reviews PhD studentship awards for the MRC.
In 2001, Sharon was recognised as a leading young entrepreneur by the Business Insider magazine’s ’42 under 42’ awards and in 2004 was named as one of the most successful recipients of the award. In 2007 Sharon was a finalist in the NorthWest Inspirational Woman of the Year.
Sharon sits on Lord Drayson’s Government Office for Life Sciences and was part of the Government’s Bioscience Innovation and Growth Team Steering Group, she was co-chair of the Biomedical sector of the ‘Innovation Manchester’ initiative of Manchester City Council / Manchester Knowledge Capital, is a member of AGMA’s Business Leadership Council and is a member of the North West Science Council Biohealth team.
During 2008, Sharon was voted North West Business Woman Entrepreneur of the Year and Crains Business Woman of the Year in Technology / Manufacturing.
Sharon was recently awarded the NorthWest Biomedical Personality of the Year 2009 Award by Bionow / NWDA.
About UMIP
The University of Manchester Intellectual Property Limited (UMIP) is the managing agent of The University of Manchester for intellectual property commercialisation. UMIP’s role is to enhance the reputation of the University’s intellectual property development through successful spin-out and licensing business activities.
UMIP consists of faculty oriented business management teams backed up by a central corporate office which provides company secretarial, marketing, legal and financial expertise.
Its activities include:
Since its inception in October 2004, UMIP has set up sixteen spin-out companies, concluded over 80 licence deals and raised more than £130 million in investment capital. It currently has over 100 projects in its portfolio at various stages of development. A number of the spin-out companies have received national and regional enterprise awards.
UMIP is wholly owned by The University of Manchester and has over a 20 year history of IP commercialisation and is a limited company of over 35 employees.
For more information visit www.umip.com
