Impressive international growth from biotechnology pioneers

Although Aberdeen-based drug development company Haptogen Ltd only came into being as recently as 2002, as a spin-out from the University of Aberdeen, the young company has quickly gone global, with over 80% of revenues already accruing from outside the UK, mainly from Korea and the US.

“When you are in the business of developing innovative antibodies, you simply have to play on a global stage,” explains Haptogen CEO Jim Reid. "You can’t just develop your own drug pipeline – you have to seek out large-scale global partners with more manufacturing and marketing muscle than you can ever hope to possess in your own right.”

In Haptogen’s case, this led to the young Scottish company signing a long-term collaborative research agreement last year with one of South Korea’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturers, DaeWoong.

The deal combines Haptogen’s innovative discovery approach with DaeWoong’s production expertise in order to develop novel antibody therapeutics targeted at important bacterial infections. The partners expect to have a product in clinics worldwide during the lifetime of the agreement.

The global approach

Although Haptogen personnel spend a large part of their working lives cultivating potential partners all over the world, including Australia, India and Canada, Scottish Development International (SDI) played a key strategic role in enabling the Korean agreement.

“Scottish Enterprise has been working closely with KHIDI, the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, since 2002, culminating in KHIDI recently establishing an office in Glasgow,” explains Jim Reid.

“Through the KHIDI connection, SDI organised an inward mission from 15 Korean biotechnology companies and research institutes, with a follow-up trip to Korea, and it was from these two events that we first met up with our DaeWoong partners.”

SDI’s support extended well beyond brokering the introduction, however. Jim Ried is quick to praise SDI’s appreciation of the nuances of Korean business culture. “With two such diverse cultures, it’s very easy to drift into misunderstandings, but SDI has a resident in-market Korean executive with significant local knowledge, and he helped smooth the process through.”

Haptogen takes its name from the smallest of small molecules – haptens – but the company is currently meeting all its ambitious growth targets and hopes to have around 30 staff in place by the end of the year, from its initial roster of four in 2002.

“We have also had a huge amount of help from Aberdeen City Council, and it is true to say that the council’s support was instrumental in allowing the company to develop to the stage it is at today," acknowledges Jim Reid.

The value of awards

Despite the highly specialised nature of its biotechnological activities, the Haptogen name is also increasingly high-profile following an impressive stream of business awards.

In 2005, directors Jim Reid and Professor Andy Porter won the Ernst and Young Scotland Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Science and Technology, and this was followed early in 2006 by the company being ranked at number six in The Glasgow Herald’s top ten new Scottish businesses.

“Award successes are the oxygen of business life,” notes Jim Reid. “Potential contacts breathe them in, then tuck them away in their memory banks for future use!”

Further details about Haptogen can be found at www.haptogen.com