1st June 2010

A research firm based at Nottingham's BioCity looks set to double in size within the next five years. Sygnature Chemical Services, which develops chemical formulations used by pharmaceutical companies, says turnover looks likely to rise by 25% in this year alone.

The company, which celebrates its sixth anniversary this year, has also invested more than £500,000 expanding its laboratory facilities in BioCity's Laurus building.

Its is homing in on the increasing demand among major pharmaceutical companies for outsourced services which save them money and time during the hugely expensive drug discovery process.

Sygnature started with only five staff, but now has 36 people on its team, most of them highly-qualified research chemists.

It plans to recruit more chemists during the coming months, and has already taken on a senior staff member from AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical giant which earlier this year announced plans to close its research and development centre at Charnwood.

Sygnature's chief executive, Dr Simon Hirst, says the firm's turnover is likely to rise from £2.7m last year to around £3.5m this year.

"We're having a very strong year and the past couple of months have been very encouraging," he said.

"We've reached a turning point with the business in that a lot more large pharmaceutical companies are working with us than before. That's because our reputation is growing.

"I think that within a year we will have around 50 employees and, if things go to plan over the next three to five years, that could rise to around 80."

Through the University of Leicester, Sygnature is currently carrying out research for charitable giant the WellcomeTrust. It also has a collaborative relationship with Respivert, a research-focused business based at Imperial College, London.

Sygnature's work covers the very early stages in the drug development process, with the company's scientists developing and assessing molecules which may form the active ingredient in new medicinal formulations.

This is a long and expensive process, with the average new drug costing £685 million to develop, taking years to come to market, and suffering a high failure rate – it is estimated that less than 5% of drug discovery ends with a product which passes trials successfully, achieves regulatory approval, and goes on sale.

Amid tough economic conditions, this has led pharmaceutical giants such as AstraZeneca to try to cut costs, opening he door to the outsourced work that Sygnature does.

Dr Paul Clewlow, the company's business development director, explained: "It is the major change in the pharmaceutical industry towards more outsourcing which is driving our growth, along with increasing awareness of what we do.

"We have a lot of experience, a lot of expertise, but we are also very clear on the communications front – clients in California can come into work and tap in through a secure server to our electronic laboratory notebooks and see how the work we are doing for them is progressing."

AstraZeneca's plans to close its Charnwood facility may have knock-on benefits for business like Sygnature, Dr Clewlow said.

"It has given us an access to knowledgeable, experienced people that we perhaps wouldn't have had before. They would never have considered small companies but they now realise we are an opportunity.

"Despite the closure of these facilities, the big 'pharma' companies still have to carry on developing the blockbuster medicines to take to market, so there is an opportunity for smaller companies like us to do that work for them."

Dr Hirst said that, had it not been for the presence of BioCity, it is almost certain the business would have been based in Cambridge.

"It is great being here and I'm a huge fan of what it has enabled companies like ours to achieve in terms of starting-up and growing – we're living proof of that.

"It is a particularly supportive environment for companies in the healthcare sector.

"It is also a real strength for Nottingham. If it hadn't been here I would certainly have gone to Cambridge.

"Nottingham is a great place for us because people come here to study and want to remain. We've been able to recruit some very highly-qualified chemists from two really good universities."