ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½

Imperial Innovations Group plc has today announced to the stock exchange a fundraising worth £140 million which will boost support to inventions inspired by research at the College - News release

ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ News Release

For immediate release
Tuesday 7 December 2010

Imperial Innovations Group plc, the company that commercialises technologies and discoveries from ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, has today announced to the stock exchange a fundraising worth £140 million which will boost support to inventions inspired by research at the College.

Making Imperial Innovations the UK’s largest company investing in university inventions, the funds will accelerate the number and size of investments that can be made to ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ spin-out companies, thus enabling them to achieve their commercial goals more quickly.

Imperial Innovations is the first and only university-owned commercialisation company to be publicly listed. It supports academic staff at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ with the translation of their ideas and discoveries for the commercial market through licensing or establishing new companies. Since April 2005 a technology pipeline agreement has been in place, giving Imperial Innovations the right, subject to certain exceptions, to exploit and commercialise the College’s unencumbered intellectual property.

Rector of ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, Sir Keith O’Nions, said:

“The College was founded in 1907 with the express goal of applying its research for the benefit of society. In recent years, Imperial Innovations has played a fundamental role in enabling us to realise that vision and we are delighted that the company is going from strength to strength. With increased capacity to invest in companies, Imperial Innovations will enable the College’s ideas and discoveries with the greatest potential to be fully supported and translated into products and services that can be used in industry, healthcare and in a wide range of other applications.”

“The success of Innovations demonstrates how public investment in research can reward its sponsors. It is a virtuous circle: Imperial Innovations’ activities return funds back to the College which helps us to become increasingly self-sufficient as a university.”

The College’s holdings in Innovations are held by the College Fund, which is accountable to the College’s Council. The aim of the College Fund is to build a resilient endowment, giving Imperial a long term sustainable basis to attract the brightest and the best staff and ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ in the world, for generations to come.

Imperial Innovations also intends to invest in companies originating from other universities carrying out intensive scientific research.

Sir Keith said: “Imperial welcomes the opportunity to work with colleagues at Oxford, Cambridge and UCL on technology commercialisation activities, which may lead to interesting joint ventures between us.”

Newly formed companies at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ benefit from expertise and, where appropriate, investment from Imperial Innovations. Since 2006, Imperial Innovations has itself invested approximately £47.9 million in spin-out companies out of a total raised by those spin-out companies of £211 million. As at 31 July 2010, Imperial Innovations had equity holdings in 79 spin-out companies and in the previous year had disclosed 344 inventions and filed 48 patents resulting from ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ research.

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For further information please contact:

ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½

Simon Watts
Media Relations and Communications Manager
ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½
e-mail: s.watts@imperial.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)207 594 6701 or ext. 46701
Out of hours duty Press Officer: +44 (0)78 03 886 248

Imperial Innovations

Adrian Duffield/Carl Franklin/Kay Larsen
College Hill
Telephone: +44 (0)207 7457 2020

Notes to editors:

About Imperial Innovations Group plc

Innovations creates, builds and invests in pioneering technologies addressing global problems in healthcare, energy and engineering. It combines deep understanding of science and technology with commercial acumen and strong investment expertise. Innovations supports scientist-entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas by:

• leading the formation of new companies and providing facilities in the early stages
• providing significant investment and encouraging co-investment to accelerate the transition from R&D to products
• providing operational expertise
• helping to recruit high-calibre industry figures and experienced entrepreneurs as executive management and Board members.

Innovations has exclusive access to scientific and technological developments coming out of ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, one of the world's leading research institutions. It has already achieved significant success with its early investments; for example its £1.5m investment in obesity drug developer Thiakis could return £16.1m plus a royalty stream on product sales if the product is launched, following its sale to Wyeth for £99.4m in 2008, while the sale of Respivert, a small molecule drug discovery company resulted in Innovations realising £9.5m, a 4.7x return on investment.

In the year to July 2010, Innovations invested £14m in 20 ventures, helping to launch three new companies.

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About ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½

Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 14,000 ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.

Since its foundation in 1907, Imperial's contributions to society have included the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of research for the benefit of all continues today, with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to improve global health, tackle climate change, develop sustainable sources of energy and address security challenges.

In 2007, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust formed the UK's first Academic Health Science Centre. This unique partnership aims to improve the quality of life of patients and populations by taking new discoveries and translating them into new therapies as quickly as possible.

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