'There is life outside the golden triangle'

In the latest of his interviews with the chiefs of the five regional centres of excellence, Business correspondent Jonathan Jones talks to Dr Fred Wright.

TURNING academic research into the medicines of the future that can tackle diseases such as cancer, is one of the aims of the new Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (CELS)

Leading that fight is Dr Fred Wright, the chief executive of CELS, who, like the heads of the region's four other centres of excellence, was appointed after a worldwide search.

Dr Wright, originally from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, was selected to lead the centre for his 30 years' experience in the sector.

He was working in the biotechnology sector in Cambridge when the regional development agency, One NorthEast, called him to discuss plans to put the region on the map for its expertise in the field.

Dr Wright was not a complete stranger to the region, having previously worked as a research scientist for ICI's agricultural division in Billingham, on Teesside, in the late 1970s, before joining Pfizer in the US in 1983, where he was involved in the development of DNA technology.

He moved back to the UK in 1990 to work in the university sector around Cambridge.

Dr Wright admits to having been quite happy there, and took some convincing to move North.

He said: "There had to be significant research for me to work on, and there had to be a will to succeed, not only in One NorthEast, but within the universities and among the people of the region as a whole."

CELS is sharing in the funding put forward by One NorthEast, its share of the £200m fund representing about a fifth of the centre's total funding over the next five years.

"We have superb research and development facilities within this region, that can attract even more investment from the private sector," said Dr Wright.

A biochemistry graduate from Belfast University, with a PhD from the John Innes Centre, part of East Anglia University, in Norwich, Dr Wright thinks of himself as a venture capitalist as well as a scientist.

He hopes that in his role at CELS he will be able to repeat the success he had at Cambridge, where he helped to establish 19 companies in the biotechnology field in ten years.

He is confident that the universities of Durham and Newcastle, along with the region's three other sites, have the academic expertise to help companies create the medical breakthroughs of the future.

He said: "Harnessing the research at the region's five universities is the key to giving North-East companies the edge in what is a tough global market place for new medical technologies.

"Although Cambridge is a major area for developments in the life sciences at the moment, no one place in the UK has a monopoly, so there is a great opportunity for the North-East to take up the challenge.

"The Centre of Excellence can harness the reach and diversity of research and development taking place in our universities, and turn them into the products and services that end-users, such as the NHS, will need in the future."

"The global life sciences industry has six billion potential customers, with four new ones born every second.

"We are all consumers of life science products, from food, to the diagnosis of disease, to medicines."

Dr Wright thinks the sequencing of the human genome, and increasing stem cell research, has opened up new possibilities for treating human diseases.

But that has added to the challenges. He said: "The sequencing of the human genome, when coupled with greater life expectancy as a result of improved healthcare, means we have an ageing population.

"While its good news that people are living longer, we have to face the challenge of finding ways to improve the quality of life as we age."

And as the developed world seeks to improve treatments and therapies, there is a also a need to eradicate diseases that cause misery in the developing world.

"What CELS can do is break down the barriers and think interdisciplinary," said Dr Wright.

"We need research aimed at solving consumer problems, but we need to overlay that with the skills of the entrepreneur, the guys with the will to make things happen, developing a business and dragging it kicking and screaming into the marketplace."

Dr Wright is also keen to build on links with research and development facilities outside the UK.

He said: "Japan is a major market and a major contributor to pharmaceutical development.

"Believe it or not, there are things that we can teach Japan about how to exploit technology in both public and private sector co-operation.

"The Japanese are fascinated by our research and want to come here to develop collaborative links."

Dr Wright admits that before moving to the North-East, he was sceptical about the region's capabilities in the field of research and development.

He said: "I didn't take the decision to move back to the North-East lightly. I shared the prejudices of most scientists, that it was necessary to work in the golden triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge.

"I wanted to know if there was a critical mass of innovation, and what is really evident from the six months I've already spent here, is that there is a tremendous concentration of expertise and world-leading scientists in the North-East.

"I am convinced that the region has the will and expertise to make a huge and meaningful contribution to the world of life sciences.

Dr Wright concluded: "I want the North-East to become the place to be in the biotechnology field. If a company wants to carry out research in the sector, then they come to this region."