Type Public limited company Website UCL Business Headquarters London, United Kingdom | Industry Technology transfer Founded 2006 Parent organization University College London | |
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UCL Business PLC (UCLB) is the technology-transfer company of University College London (UCL) and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of UCL and is responsible for conducting technology development and commercial transactions for the university. It is based on Tottenham Court Road in the Camden area of Central London.
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History
UCL's first technology-transfer company was founded in 1989 as UCL Ventures. In February 2001 UCL Ventures, together with the technology-transfer companies of the University of Bristol, the University of Southampton and Imperial College London, signed a deal with a £100 million investment fund. UCL Ventures merged with the technology-transfer company of the Royal Free Hospital, Freemedic plc (founded in 1993) to form UCL Biomedica PLC.
UCL Business PLC was created in August 2006 through the merger of UCL BioMedica with UCL’s internal knowledge transfer department, also known as UCL Business. The former UCL Business had been established to provide a link between UCL's academics and industry, and to aid the development of commercially valuable technologies arising from UCL, whilst UCL BioMedica had been established to commercialise opportunities arising from UCL’s biomedical research strengths, as well as to conduct clinical trials. The integration of the two technology transfer activities created a single organisation focused on delivering the complete commercialisation process from patent registration and support for the creation of new businesses, through to licensing and sales of technologies to industry partners.
UCLB provided advice and a grant support to Siavash Haroun Mahdavi in helping him to establish the robotics company Complex Matters.
In January 2011, BioVex, a cancer vaccines company spun-out of UCL in 1999, was sold to Amgen for $1 billion.
Spin-out companies
UCLB has equity stake in all of its companies, the majority being spin-outs arising from technologies developed across the full range of faculties within UCL, including biomedical, biotechnology, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences and build environment companies. These include Ark Therapeutics Ltd, Arrow Therapeutics Ltd, Biovex Ltd, Canbex, Domainex Ltd, Evexar Medical Ltd, Genex Biosystems, Intercytex, Medic-to-Medic, Pentraxin Therapeutics, PolyMASC Pharmaceuticals PLC, Proaxon, Spirogen Ltd, Stanmore Implants Worldwide Ltd, Advanced Design Technology, AS Built Solutions, Bloomsbury DSP, Endomagnetics, EuroTempest, Ixico, Quantemol, Senceive, Space Syntax, Zinwave.