In collaboration with One Nucleus and their annual Genesis conference, Marks & Clerk is hosting a seminar titled: 'Building a Strong Life Science Company - Avoiding Costly Mistakes in Market Strategy, IP & Transactions'.
Simon Portman - Solicitor and Of Counsel at Marks & Clerk, James Shearman - Patent Attorney and Partner at Marks & Clerk, Professor Annie Brooking - CEO Magic Monkey and Dr Michael Murray - Principal at Murray International Partners Ltd. will all be speaking and providing their expert insights. To find out more about the speakers and to book your free ticket, see below:
Simon specialises as a commercial contract lawyer for technology companies. He works for clients in the electronics, bioscience, defence, software, nanotech and creative industries, advising companies ranging from small start-ups to big multinationals as well as individuals, public bodies and charities. Nordic clients form a significant part of his practice, notably Finland and Norway. Simon also spearheads the firm’s memberships of the Finnish British Chamber of Commerce and the Norwegian British Chamber of Commerce; he is a member of Trondheim networks UT and T-AI; and Helsinki digital transformation network Spatial8.
He advises on a wide range of contracts, including licenses, R&D collaborations, manufacturing agreements and procurement documentation. On the regulatory front, he has advised on compliance with clinical trials legislation and novel food applications, as well as freedom of information and data protection issues.
Simon has co-written two business textbooks, Commercial Issues for Life Science Companies and Intellectual Property: the Lifeblood of your Company and has contributed articles to numerous publications, including the Financial Times, Patent World and Managing Intellectual Property. He regularly gives seminars and workshops at pharmaceutical conferences in the UK and internationally. He was also part of a UK IPO steering group putting together policies and contracts suitable for R&D collaborations in China.
James is a Chartered Patent Attorney and European Patent Attorney. He handles the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications in the UK and Europe as well as in other commercially important jurisdictions such as China, Japan, Korea, India and the US.
James has particular experience in handling patent applications relating to pharmaceutical products, organic fine chemicals, chemical processes, food ingredients, energy storage, display devices and printing technologies.
Before joining Marks & Clerk in September 2011, James obtained a doctorate in medicinal chemistry from the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Steven Ley CBE. James’ PhD research into the synthesis and biological properties of bromotyrosine-derived natural products was funded by Cancer Research UK. Prior to his postgraduate studies, James graduated from the University of Cambridge with a first class MSci degree in natural sciences.
Annie has a computer science background and founded her own AI research centre at South Bank University in the mid 80’s., She was subsequently recruited to Sun Microsystems in by Eric Schmidt as the AI software strategist. Annie spent six years in Silicon Valley and Boston, MA in both R&D and Marketing.. She has 27 years as CEO of high tech companies.
A strategic product marketer, she has brought 19 high tech products to market. In 2015 as CEO of Bactest she won SME of the year from the Daily Telegraph. She has mentored over 60 CEOs to write business plans and raise venture capital, she also mentors first time CEOs and aspiring product managers. Annie is an expert on intangible assets and wrote the first book on Intellectual Capital, followed by another on Knowledge Management. She is the inventor of the Dream Ticket™ business planning methodology and author of the Dream Ticket book and card deck which she uses in her workshops.
Murray International Partners Limited provides deal management, commercial advisory, and IP strategy valuation services. Dr Murray has led and closed numerous deals in the biopharmaceuticals industry ranging in value from hundreds of thousands to multi-billion bio-dollars. Selected recent roles include Interim Head of Business Development, EnteroBiotix Limited; and Interim Commercial Director at Porton Biopharma Limited. He combines scientific, technical, intellectual property (IP), market, and deal-making expertise to assess, build, value, structure, and negotiate deals.
His client base is international and spans: universities, start-ups, SMEs, mid-cap companies, and multinationals. Dr Murray has held director- and board-level/senior management and commercial roles in biotech companies and in an international management consultancy practice. He is a Member of the International Technology Transfer Network (ITTN, China); is a Mentor at Cambridge Enterprise (University of Cambridge, UK); commercial advisor at the University of Sheffield, (UK) (where he was a Royal Society Entrepreneur-in-Residence from 2019 to 2022); and a Member of both the Research Strategy Board & the Commercialisation Committee of Coeliac UK. He holds a PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Leicester and a first degree in microbiology from the University of Edinburgh.
After the seminar, we will be making our way to the networking mixer at The Rugby Tavern in Bloomsbury, sponsored by Qualio, so please feel free to join us there too!