Critical Pharmaceuticals

Delivering the ideal employee to industry

“Collaborative Training has real benefits for industry,” states Helen Woods, a key employee at Nottingham-based pharmaceutical company Critical Pharmaceuticals. Helen’s experience certainly proves her point.

Her journey began at The University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry. “I specialised in polymers and supercritical fluids before I was invited to undertake an Industry Linked Fellowship.”

This year-long collaboration between The University of Nottingham and Critical Pharmaceuticals saw Helen combining the blue-sky thinking and cutting edge knowledge associated with academia with the more commercial focus prevalent within industry.

Both parties are better off

Helen was given responsibility for developing an exploratory project focusing on inhaleable microparticles for drug delivery via the lungs. “The Industry Linked Fellowship enabled me to broaden the technology being developed at Critical Pharmaceuticals in collaboration with Dr Stolnik in the School of Pharmacy, whose research focuses on drug delivery by inhalation.”

Helen was able to pursue her research at Critical Pharmaceuticals alongside the existing team, broadening the scope of the company’s product development. For Critical Pharmaceuticals, the benefits are clear.

“Throughout my fellowship, the vast resources at The University of Nottingham were available to Critical Pharmaceuticals. These included library facilities, analytical equipment and contact with highly knowledgeable and expert academics. This was vital to the success of the project, which in the long term has enormous commercial potential.”

New employee, new grant, new expertise

Collaborative Training has clearly been a success for Helen. “I’ve received training and gained experience in finance, market assessment, intellectual property law, negotiation and communication skills. And I’ve also established strong alliances with The University of Nottingham.” Now that Helen is a full-time employee at Critical Pharmaceuticals, these are skills that benefit the company in many different ways.

The success of the fellowship has also generated a further PhD grant for the University .

"Collaborative Training does not cost a great deal, but it leads to invaluable collaborations between The University of Nottingham and industry. These can continue for years, and open up a broad range of expertise, knowledge and academic resources for SMEs".

Critical Pharmaceuticals specialise in the delivery of fragile protein therapeutics to treat conditions such as growth disorders, multiple sclerosis, anaemia, HIV infection and cancer.