£3.7m SE cancer research project axed

Published on Sunday 27 August 2006 00:28

SCOTTISH Enterprise's flagship ITI research project has suffered a fresh blow with the cancellation of a £3.7m project aimed at tackling breast cancer.

ITI Life Sciences said it had terminated its first research programme, launched 18 months ago, because of a lack of time and money. Its former research partners may now develop the technology alone.

An ITI spokeswoman said: "Ultimately we reached the point when the probability of overcoming technical challenges within the timescales and resources allocated was so low we could not continue."

The research institute network was hit recently by the resignation of ITI Scotland chief executive Roger Dickinson - the fourth senior executive to walk out in a year.

ITI Life Sciences, based in Dundee, is still without a chief executive, 10 months after former boss John Chiplin walked out.

ITI's partners on the cancelled programme were CSS Albachem, an East Lothian company owned by the biotechnology tycoon Allen McClay; Edinburgh Instruments, a spin-out from Heriot-Watt University; and Hannah Interactions, a commercial offshoot of the Hannah Research Institute.

The ITI spokeswoman said: "Two of the research providers have decided to continue with certain aspects of the programme independently, and are negotiating licences with ITI Life Sciences to use the intellectual assets generated within the programme."

She added the premature end of the project could be seen as a step forward. "We have this week signed one contract which represents the very first commercialisation of technology created by an ITI Programme. That's a very exciting development.

"It also means that the taxpayer will still benefit from any eventual commercial application of the technology from this discontinued programme."

Not all of the 3.7m allocated to the programme over three years had been spent, she said.