BioQuarter’s first tenant is data analysis spin-out Fios Genomics

By Peter Ranscombe
Published on Thursday 9 February 2012 00:00

SCOTTISH Enterprise will tonight announce it has signed up the first tenant for its “bio-incubator” building at Edinburgh’s BioQuarter, the £600 million science park next to the city’s Royal Infirmary.

Fios Genomics, which will move to the site from the technology transfer centre at Edinburgh University’s King’s Buildings, analyses data to help scientists develop drugs.

The firm’s decision to take 700sq ft at the 85,000sq ft facility, which is being built at a cost of £24m, will be revealed to some 700 delegates at Scottish Enterprise’s annual life sciences dinner at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

The original plan was for California-based science park developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities to construct and run the building, but the firm scaled back its overseas work in 2008 following the financial crisis.

Scottish Enterprise and the UK government’s Department for Business stepped in to fund the construction in a 50:50 joint venture and are now recruiting other firms to fill the building.

Construction work was completed at the end of last year and the building is currently being fitted out for its first tenant.

Alexandria still has options to develop other land around the BioQuarter, near neighbouring developments such as Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, the university’s medical school and the newly-opened Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine.

Fios Genomics, which was spun out of Edinburgh University in 2008, raised £500,000 last year through a funding round that included Archangel Informal Investments, Tweed Renaissance Investors Capital (TRI Cap) and the Scottish Investment Bank’s co-investment fund. Scottish Enterprise also helped the company to market itself overseas and to develop its website.

Bill Buckie, Fios Genomics’ chief executive, said: “Moving to Edinburgh BioQuarter is another part of our ambitious plans to be a leader in our field.”

Rhona Allison, Scottish Enterprise’s director of life sciences, described the BioQuarter as “one of the cornerstones of Scotland’s life sciences sector’s aspirations for growth”.

As well as housing spin-out and start-up companies, the BioQuarter’s staff are involved in securing partnerships that will help academics to commercialise research and expertise.

News of the first tenant comes just months after Scotland on Sunday revealed that the BioQuarter had signed a landmark deal with drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to develop medicines to treat acute pancreatitis.

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