Washington Editor

The British government is looking to increase U.S. investment in its country by fostering partnerships between knowledge-driven, young American companies and suitable UK firms.

Biotechnology companies are a prime target of this initiative, first announced last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Denver. Referred to as Global Partnerships, the program will incorporate three divisions of the British government: Invest.UK, Trade Partners UK and the UK's Science and Technology Network.

"The primary objective is to bring together an enterprise in the U.S. which is looking for some sort of partnership with an enterprise in the UK, which will be mutually beneficial," Alastair Newton, director of Invest.UK in New York, told BioWorld Today. "The partnership could take the form of a joint venture, a licensing agreement, shared R&D, a marketing agreement of some sort, or a distribution agreement."

He said the concept grew from an obvious demand. "We discovered in the latter years of the 1990s there was an increasing number of small to medium-sized U.S. companies that wanted to establish some sort of profile in Europe, and inevitability, a lot of those enterprises were in biotech R&D.

"We believe global partnerships will help biotech spin-offs bring products to market more quickly at a lower risk on both sides of the Atlantic," Newton said.

Services provided by Global Partnerships are both confidential and free. On identifying a potential U.S. partner, Global Partnerships draws up a list of six potential UK firms likely to match the needs of the U.S. company. With close involvement of Invest.UK, the U.S. company is encouraged to contact the UK candidates, and the process begins.

Newton said Global Partnerships initiated a seven-month U.S. pilot program that resulted in more than 20 partnership projects, including about five with biotechnology companies.

Invest.UK is the British government's worldwide economic development agency. Trade Partners UK gives assistance to UK companies exporting goods and services to the U.S., and helps U.S. companies to source goods, services and business partners from the UK.

For more information, visit either organization's website at www.investuk-usa.com or www.tradepartners.gov.uk.