Appreciating Academic Spinouts

In 2024, UK university spinouts secured over £2.6 billion in funding, marking a 38 percent increase from the previous year, according to a report by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and company data specialist Beauhurst. This surge occurred despite a broader 19 percent decline in equity markets for high-growth companies, highlighting the resilience and attractiveness of university spinouts in the investment landscape. ​

The life sciences sector continues to lead in spinout creation, particularly within the “Golden Triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge, and London. Oxford University alone has founded 53 pharmaceutical spinouts to date, more than any other UK institution.

Developed from research at the University of Oxford, spinout Infinitopes is working on cancer vaccines using machine learning technology to detect proteins that stimulate immune responses against cancer cells. The company has secured $17 million to advance its treatments. 

Elsewhere, a January 2025 report by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) examines how academic research contributes to innovation by analyzing patent citations from the Top 100 Global Innovators 2024 (as identified by Clarivate). The report identifies the top 50 universities whose academic papers were most frequently cited in patents, thereby underscoring their influence on commercial technological development. Its findings affirm that academic research is a critical precursor to technological innovation.

Unsurprisingly, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and UC Berkeley are the most prolific US universities in innovation patents and academic spinouts. In 2022, UC Berkeley spinout Rewrite Therapeutics, a gene editing startup, was acquired by Intellia, earning founders Shakked Halperin and David Schaffer a share of $200 million. Just last year, Eli Lilly agreed to the acquisition of Harvard spinout Morphic Therapeutic, which focuses on small molecules that inhibit the integrins involved in autoimmune diseases, cancers, and fibrosis. A Yale spinout, Modifi Bio, was also acquired last year by Merck & Co in a deal worth up to $1.3 billion.

Smaller, more flexible, and with greater freedom to innovate than big pharma players, the agility of an academic spinout is not just potentially lucrative, it is also universal as European countries also feature prominently on the ISI report, with French, German, Swiss, and Belgian institutions taking eight of the top 50 spots between them. Emerging from Charité University Hospital in Germany and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Lucid Genomics recently received EU funding as it focuses on AI-driven algorithms to analyze DNA datasets at low cost, with the aim of advancing precision medicine. ​

The reports underscore the crucial role of academia in fostering pharmaceutical innovation. Whilst it is important to feature the vital work undertaken by big players in bringing lifesaving treatments to market, and amidst the noise of political upheaval in the life sciences regulatory sectors, let us not forget the perennial development of new talent, patents, and innovations as they emerge from academic beginnings. As such, here’s a roundup of some interesting spin outs and the areas they are working on. 

Apini, a spinout from the University of Manchester, UK, which is advancing the development of small molecule therapies for inflammatory diseases. The company has secured part of a £12.5 million investment from Syncona Limited, facilitating the acceleration of its therapeutic programs. ​

Another UK-based spinout, Resolution Therapeutics, from the University of Edinburgh, focuses on macrophage cell therapy for organ repair. Their pioneering treatment, RTX001, is currently being tested as a potential solution for liver cirrhosis.

​MIT spinout ReviveMed, founded by Leila Pirhaji and Professor Ernest Fraenkel, has developed an AI-driven platform to analyze metabolites to better understand disease mechanisms and patient responses. Traditional methods measure only a fraction of the body's metabolites, but ReviceMed’s innovative AI use aims to fill the gap by leveraging large-scale metabolomic data and uncovering hidden drivers of diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, and cardiovascular conditions.​

In 2023, I visited the labs of CRISPR technology development company Caszyme, a spinout of the University of Vilnius, in Lithuania. CEO Monika Paule is now a regular contributor to these pages. If you would like to discuss your own academic spinout’s achievements, or pay tribute to others, feel free to connect: [email protected]