KTN/EEN training helps UroPharma raise £1.5m for bladder treatment innovation

UroPharma raise £1.5m for bladder treatment innovation following training from Knowledge Transfer Network & Enterprise Europe Network

Pharmaceutical company UroPharma raise £1.5m for bladder treatment innovation following training from Knowledge Transfer Network & Enterprise Europe Network

Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) offered pitch training at Pitchfest held at St. John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge at the end of 2016. One such recipient of this training was UroPharma, a Norfolk-based pharmaceutical company who are headquartered in Minneapolis. This series of training sessions were run alongside the support of Enterprise Europe Network (EEN). Off the back of this training course, UroPharma have raised $2 million (around £1.5 million) towards the development of a new treatment for bladder disorders.

After having received an initial £25,000 grant from Innovate UK in 2015, UroPharma attended Pitchfest 2016, which provided pitch preparation in order to allow attendees to become investor-ready. UroPharma CEO Howard Shapland himself recognised the need to improve his pitching skills, something which he was evidently able to achieve through attending KTN & EEN’s Pitchfest. One such lesson that Shapland took from the training was the importance of having a presentation for investors that is understandable.

It has only been a year and a half since attending this training that the £1.5m has been raised: the benefits of attending a KTN-led event are therefore evident. UroPharma’s new drug delivery technology is named the VesiCath, which administers drugs directly into the urinary bladder (intravesical drug delivery). The need to develop this technology arose from the need to combat the rise in bladder problems which has resulted from the overall ageing population. The real benefit and value of their new innovation is that it delivers the drug in a more reliable and safer way than oral or injection delivery; it brings higher accuracy in dosing and significantly lowers the risk of urinary tract infections. UroPharma’s potential revenue is forecast to hit £160m within 5 years.