Washington Editor

CARDIFF, Wales - Life science research is alive and well in Wales, the United Kingdom country located in western Britannia. From local strengths in the medical device and contract research sectors to promising leads in genetics and stem cell therapies, Wales features numerous fortes.

"Bioscience is huge, with an average growth rate of 15 percent to 20 percent worldwide," said Robert Wallis, the bioscience sector manager of the Welsh Development Agency. "And it's a pretty significant industry in Wales."

Once home to powerful coal and steel sectors, there is a transformation under way in this region of fewer than 3 million people. Recent estimates indicate that about 15,000 of its residents are employed in the life sciences, with more than 250 companies making up its commercial base. Wales features numerous small outfits such as academic spinouts and start-ups, alongside large multinational businesses in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, devices, diagnostics, agriculture and contract research.

The Welsh Development Agency, an economic enhancement entity based in this capital city, has been tapped by the Welsh Assembly Government to spur the region's bioscience sector growth efforts as Wales looks to further develop into a knowledge-based economy. Its initiatives include forming new companies, expanding research and development at existing firms, securing government grants, setting up deals and recruiting foreign business and talent. And those tasks must be completed largely without major venture capital investors, as their funding is not traditionally widespread in Wales given its distance from financing hubs in London, Oxford and Cambridge.

Organic Growth Models Can Flourish

Recent efforts have focused on a relatively small outfit located just outside Cardiff, Zoobiotic Ltd., which is building its business by employing what it calls the world's smallest surgeons: maggots.

The new company, recently spun out of a trust of the UK's National Health System, represents a public-private partnership that remains owned in part by that government health agency and other backers. In total, they invested £1.7 million (US$3 million) in ZooBiotic, which was officially established in May after a decade of research and development demonstrating the flesh-eating maggots' ability to treat troublesome wounds such as diabetic ulcers and pressure sores.

"They get into all the nooks and crannies that conventional dressings can't reach," explained Steve Thomas, the company's technical director, noting that the maggots can increase their weight by 20 times to 30 times over the course of a two- to three-day treatment. "They're remarkably effective at removing dead tissue."

Hardly new - less refined maggot therapies date back several centuries - ZooBiotic nonetheless expects its LarvE product to outperform potentially competing maggots being developed in the U.S., Germany and Israel. Its biosurgeons, which are considered drug therapy in Europe as opposed to the FDA's device designation, come from the Lucilia sericata fly and are sterilized during their egg stage by an undisclosed chemical process. In treatment sessions, pots of about 300 maggots are applied in a free range fashion on an open wound, where they digest dead tissue and also facilitate bacterial removal while simultaneously producing an antimicrobial effect and promoting a healing effect.

Even before Zoobiotic was created, its maggot therapy had been building a client base: To date, about 15 million maggots have been sold to physicians for prescription use under a limited "specials" license from the UK's regulatory agency. The company hopes to gain full licensure in the next year or two, which would position it for major internal growth as such clearance would allow Zoobiotic to actively promote its maggots and gobble up a major share of the European market.

For the National Health System, its investment in the technology could result in an indirect financial reward - while the company expects to turn its first profit in the next year or two, Thomas noted that the maggots are expected to significantly reduce treatment costs by reducing the duration of hospital stays and even combat the growing problem of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.

"This is just taking advantage of maggots doing what maggots do," he said.

Organic Growth Success Stories

One company that effectively grew from within is Molecular Light Technology Research Ltd., which was borne of chemiluminescent technology in 1988 and, two years ago, was acquired by a longtime licensee, Gen-Probe Inc. in San Diego.

Stuart Woodhead, one of the company's founders and its executive vice president of research and development, called Molecular Light Technology's rise "an incredible model for economic development in this region." Its high-sensitivity diagnostic tests use chemiluminescent labels as alternatives to radioisotopes, a technology licensed from the University of Wales College of Medicine. Long applied in clinical diagnostic tests, Molecular Light Technology is beginning to expand into industrial applications such as environmental monitoring.

Such an internal growth model also has worked for Tricotech Ltd., a diagnostics company that specializes in hair drug screening, and in 12 years of operation has developed an international client base.

Standard Cores: Big Business, Academics

The region's bioscience anchors include ConvaTec, part of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.; GE Healthcare, a $15 billion unit of General Electric Co. that formerly operated as Amersham; Euro/DPC Ltd., part of Diagnostic Products Corp.; Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, part of Johnson & Johnson; and Biomet UK Ltd.

Of course, many of these business opportunities stem from successful academic research. In a notable unification last year, the University of Wales College of Medicine merged with Cardiff University and instantly created one of the UK's largest research universities. Other major Welsh universities with accompanying bioscience clusters are found in Bangor, Aberystwyth and Swansea.

These days, Cardiff University is a major stakeholder in the Wales Gene Park, a venture created to join genetics, life sciences and clinical expertise from across Wales.

Its primary research is focused on oncology and neuroscience, according to director Nick Lench, and both areas have generated commercial partnerships since its 2002 inception: the Wales Gene Park has out-licensed some of its colon cancer genetic discoveries to Myriad Genetics Inc. in Salt Lake City, and it has developed relationships to provide Alzheimer's disease clinical data to London-based GlaxoSmithKline plc and Rockville, Md.-based Celera Genomics Group. Related research efforts include cancer registries and a clinical first: embryonic stem cell transplants into Huntington's disease patients.

"Expertise exists in Cardiff and Wales," Lench said. "It's a matter of bringing them together."