Nexus Oncology completes journey from back bedroom to global force

A CANCER research firm founded 13 years ago by a former Edinburgh University student in her back bedroom has been sold to a US company in what is thought to be a multi-million pound deal.

Nexus Oncology, which is based at the Roslin Biocentre and employs more than 120 staff across Europe and North America, has been acquired by Ockham in a cash and shares deal for an undisclosed sum.

Founder and chief executive Clare Wareing will become chief scientific officer of the enlarged company, which will be led by Ockham’s chief executive James Baker and a joint management team. Prior to the acquisition, six of the seven-strong Nexus management team – including chief operating officer Theresa Bruce – were women.

Wareing said: “We are absolutely delighted to be part of this new organisation. This transaction enables us to realise a long-held ambition of being a global, full-service oncology contract research organisation with a larger geographic footprint and a wider and deeper service offering.”

In its latest accounts for the year to 30 April, 2011, Nexus made a profit of £132,924 on a turnover of £8.4 million. At the time the accounts were filed last month, the company said it expected the current financial year to remain challenging but that forecasts indicated it would make a profit.

According to Companies House records, Wareing is the sole shareholder of the business.

Baker described Nexus as a “first- class organisation” that had a history of providing excellent service in oncology clinical trials throughout the world. “The experience of the Nexus clinical team and their leadership will help the newly-enlarged company to expand our services and be a force in getting life-saving drugs to market more efficiently.”

With the addition of Nexus, North Carolina-based Ockham now employs approximately 300 employees across 12 countries, placing it among the leading niche contract research organisations worldwide.

Wareing moved to Edinburgh 25 years ago when she began a PhD in drug-resistant cancer tumours at Edinburgh University. In an interview with The Scotsman in 2004, Wareing said she hadn’t set out to start a business and had initially intended to work purely as a consultant. I was helping biotech companies to get in contact with the cancer centres to run the trials, then people asked if we could actually run the trials ourselves,” she said.

The company grew rapidly and regularly featured among the highest ranked Scottish firms in the Deloitte Fast 50 awards.

As well as its Edinburgh-headquarters the company now has European offices in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Spain and Sweden. It also has offices in Toronto, Canada, and San Antonio, Texas.

Wareing, who started her career researching resistance to anti-cancer drugs, put the company’s success in its early years down to its size and specialisation. “We mainly work with biotech companies, not big pharmaceutical firms, and most of those companies are small as well, which I think is part of the reason for our success.

“They like working with another small company and a lot of the consultancies are huge, employing thousands of people throughout the world.

“Also, we’re very specialised – we only deal with trials for cancer therapies – but a lot of the companies are more varied. They might do trials for heart treatments and antibiotics as well. I think our specialisation has made us popular.”

Ockham, which was founded in 1986, has its headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, with satellite offices across the United States, India and the UK.