Saturday, April 18, 2015

Scotland's Life Sciences Industry Continues To Recover -- From Being "Fast Freddied". . .


A quiet weekend evening allows for. . . soup, and look-back reflections: the good news, here is that Scotland, near Glasgow, continues to rebuild its strong science driven employment base. It was kind of Merck to donate the legacy facility, as well.

I highlight the feel good story, out of our sturdy, even tempered relatives across the pond, though -- to remind the readership of just some of the sorts of damage the wrong kinds of CEOs inflict, on regular human beings -- scientists. [Here I would encourage the readership to consider the growing collateral damage path of one Ian Read -- still on top of Pfizer, as well.]

Out of the Herald Scotland, then -- a bit:

. . . .Confirmed partner companies for the hub include multinational pharma company Johnson & Johnson, venture capital firm Epidarex Capital and technology giant Toshiba.

Diane Harbison, BioCity Scotland's managing director, said she hoped the innovation hub would "help to catalyse new company creation and really benefit the life sciences sector in Scotland".

"We are basically trying to engineer serendipity that will help grow the sector," she said. "Life sciences is a key growth sector of the Scottish economy and is set to double in size in the next five years."

"Offering support to Scottish universities and industries by partnering with major healthcare practitioners, entrepreneurs and scientists will provide a tremendous boost to the life sciences sector in Scotland."

Harbison added that BioCity's central location on the M8 at Newhouse made it the ideal place to attract talent from across the country. . . .


Just for the record, as a historical footnote, in mid-2009, Schering-Plough EVP Thomas Koestler was, as an executive of legacy Schering-Plough, holding forth on his hopes for additional significant Lanarkshire investment and "sharing his zeal for the company’s Lanarkshire operations. As Dr. Thomas Koestler enthused about Scotland’s talent in pharmaceuticals, earthmoving equipment shuddered outside the window of the Newhouse plant, laying the foundations for a state-of-the-art new compound store. . . ." But none of that ever came to be. It was all closed one year later, in mid-2010. So it goes.

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