12 February 2008

TMRC announces £15 million investment in translational medical research funding in Scotland

The Translational Medicine Research Collaboration (TMRC) - the unique venture bringing together one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies with Scotland's finest medical research centres - today announced the second round of research projects to be funded through the initiative.

Almost £15.5 million of funding has been released to support 39 new research projects covering a wide range of therapeutic areas including cardiovascular and metabolic disease, the central nervous system, women's health, inflammation and oncology. Four of these projects were initiated in late 2007 and the remainder will start imminently across the four academic partner sites in Scotland.

These new investments build on almost £8 million of project funding released in December 2006 to support 28 research programs. Wyeth has already committed in excess of its minimum project funding of $45 million ahead of schedule.

The first phase of TMRC created in excess of 100 new jobs in the universities and at the TMRC Core Laboratory located at the University of Dundee, with employment expected to double through the next phase of TMRC.

The Collaboration comprises four of Scotland's leading universities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow), Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., Scottish Enterprise and NHS Scotland Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lothian and Tayside, and provides new impetus for Scotland to lead the world in the development of personalised medicine, bringing new treatments to patients suffering from a range of serious illnesses.

Professor Andrew Morris, chair of the TMRC Steering Group, said: "This second major injection of medical research funding into the Centres of Excellence across Scotland is an important milestone for TMRC and strong endorsement for the value that has already been created. The spirit of collaboration between the partners continues to build, and we are all firmly focused on delivering valuable patient benefits and shared commercial success for all partners."

Frank Walsh, Executive Vice President of Wyeth Discovery Research, said: "We remain very impressed by the quality of the science and innovation being generated as part of this collaboration. The latest round of projects is likely to generate meaningful scientific data which will have a real impact on the quality of new therapies being developed as well as the speed with which we can deliver these to patients."

Jack Perry, Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise which committed funding of up to £17.5m to the collaboration, said: "Wyeth has been an outstanding partner in this collaboration, delivering more than they promised earlier than forecast. The TMRC is a great example of the harnessing of Scotland's capabilities to deliver world class research which will realise commercial benefits for both Wyeth and all of the Scottish partners."

Contact
Stephen Sharp
Senior Media Relations Executive
Scottish Enterprise
Tel: 0141 228 7364
Mobile: 07786 126 629
Email: stephen.sharp@scotent.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

* The TMRC - Translational Medicine is a revolutionary new approach to developing new drugs and treatments by focusing research on new tests for the diagnosis and monitoring of human diseases. The TMRC consists of a central core Research Laboratory working with 'Centres of Excellence' in each of the four University Medical Schools. The Research Laboratory will be based at the University of Dundee, with 50 scientific jobs created in the first instance. The Collaboration also builds upon the development of a new Clinical Research Centre network across the four universities and the NHS in Grampian, Greater Glasgow, Lothian and Tayside.

* Wyeth is one of the world's largest research-driven pharmaceutical and health care products companies. It is a leader in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, biotechnology products and non-prescription medicines that improve the quality of life for people worldwide. The Company's major divisions include Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare and Fort Dodge Animal Health. http://www.wyeth.com

* Translational Medicine is a revolutionary new approach to developing new drugs and treatments by focusing research on new tests for the diagnosis and monitoring of human diseases. These tests, called biomarkers, are new proteins or markers that can be measured in blood samples or X-rays of patients. They can then be used to follow the progress and response to the treatment of patients with diseases such as heart attacks, cancer, depression and osteoporosis.

Biomarkers can also help to develop new treatments. The Collaboration will include them in specialised clinical trials in Scotland working with the established network of doctors and researchers who conduct medical research to the highest ethical standards, whilst protecting patient confidentiality. These trials will facilitate the speed in getting new treatments from the laboratory to benefit patients in the clinic, with the potential to enhance patient care and treatments. It will also help adapt prescription drugs to individual needs so that doctors can discover which groups of patients respond best to which medicines, enabling resources to be targeted more effectively, and making sure that the right patients get the right treatments.

More information on the other collaboration partners can be found on their web sites here:

* University of Aberdeen www.abdn.ac.uk

* University of Dundee www.dundee.ac.uk

* University of Edinburgh www.ed.ac.uk

* University of Glasgow www.gla.ac.uk

* NHS Greater Glasgow www.nhsgg.org.uk

* NHS Grampian www.nhsgrampian.org

* NHS Lothian www.show.scot.nhs.uk

* NHS Tayside www.nhstayside.scot.nhs.uk/

* Scottish Enterprise www.scottish-enterprise.com

* Scottish Development International www.scottishdevelopmentinternational.com

* Translational Medicine Research Institute Limited www.tmri.co.uk

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk