Alderley Park-based ApconiX has achieved a five-fold sales increase in its second year of trading, far exceeding its predicted annual forecast.
Alderley Park-based ApconiX – a nonclinical safety company working with the pharmaceutical sector – has achieved a five-fold sales increase in its second year of trading, far exceeding its predicted annual forecast.
And the business has just received the accolade of Start-Up of the Year at the 17th awards hosted by BioNow, the northern England bio-medical and life sciences membership organisation.
The company’s early success is based on delivering expertise in safety toxicology and ion channel electrophysiology to a changing pharmaceutical sector, in which more companies are outsourcing their essential drug safety testing and analysis.
Founded in 2015 by Professor Ruth Roberts, Dr Richard Knight and Dr Michael Morton following many years working at AstraZeneca, ApconiX has already recruited a group of leading scientists with wide-ranging skills in preclinical drug safety.
The company how has more than 60 clients across the UK, US and Europe including Pfizer, UCB and Gilead, as well as bio-techs, start-ups and university spin-outs. Current clients also include the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), HESI and the Institute for Cancer Research.
Professor Ruth Roberts, ApconiX co-founder and director, said: “We formed the company with a drive and ambition to create a world-renowned business known for nonclinical expertise supporting drug discovery and development. Since then, the take-up of our services has gone way beyond our expectations and includes companies, venture-capital funded organisations, charities and academia.
“Our cost-effective, flexible approach complements the way the pharmaceutical industry has evolved in recent years, with large pharma reducing its internal capability and outsourcing key skills to trusted partners. Meanwhile, there are many more pharma sector SMEs needing access to specialised services. That’s why we have established our own laboratory to help meet the market need for high quality data.
“Ultimately, our knowledge and expertise helps companies developing new drugs to make better decisions on drug safety.”
“As identified in the Government’s Life Sciences review 2016, drug discovery and development needs greater collaboration to de-risk the process and reduce the number of project failures caused by safety toxicity. The changing face of drug discovery and development means a safe pair of hands is needed to help companies navigate the difficult pathway towards safe, effective and profitable drugs.”
ApconiX is building a number of strategic alliances with organisations in the sector: a close relationship with one local pharma company has led ApconiX to act as an outsourced safety department across its operations. ApconiX has also established several, strategic international alliances including French company, PhysioStim, therefore creating a European centre of excellence for preclinical cardiovascular safety evaluation. Its recent alliance with Sygnature Discovery ensures the Nottingham-based contract research organisation can provide its customers with a broader range of drug discovery services.
PHOTO CAPTION:
ApconiX co-founders and directors, (l to r) Dr Michael Morton, Professor Ruth Roberts and Dr Richard Knight celebrate their Start-up of the Year Award at the BioNow Awards.
