“One deal stands out in particular; an inventor was going to receive a cheque from MRC that would not only clear his mortgage, but leave him with surplus cash – all in one month. The inventor said to me: “I bet your bonus this year will be brilliant!”
Unfortunately, Michael Murray was on postdoc pay at the time – with no bonus. However, years of working in IP, licensing, and investment deals eventually gave him the knowledge to set up his own consultancy: Murray International Partners. Today, he advises on commercial strategy, deal management, and more – and he’s also passionate about helping young businesses thrive.
Previously, we have spoken with Murray about antimicrobial resistance. In this interview, we find out about his career – spanning slime mould, multimillion pound deals, and antimicrobial resistance – and ask what advice he has for young companies seeking investors.
How did you get interested in science?
I wanted to be a doctor, but I confess that I was a little arrogant in my teenage years. I sailed through many exams and then eased off the gas. I ended up dropping a grade across all six of the higher subjects I was studying. Medicine was suddenly off the table.
Instead, I studied for a broad biological sciences degree at university. I didn’t really know where I wanted to end up, but in the final year I focused on bacteriology and microbiology. Two things suddenly struck me.
First, I found it absolutely fascinating. And second, I suddenly realised I’d never actually done any real science before! Up to that point, we were just being spoon-fed the dogma of the day. This realization pushed me towards a PhD.
I picked a somewhat niche and quirky topic. I took a slime mould that no one had really done much molecular biology on, and I tried to apply molecular techniques to hunt down genes. For about two and a half years, all I really did was perfect techniques and learn, frankly, a lot about how not to do things.
But I was lucky because I was in a lab where the boss was very clear: “You need to understand the methods you're using and why you're using them. If you design a method, know what you're doing and why.”
This ethos really stuck with me. As a group, we became very good at dissecting commercial molecular biology kits and then building better ones. Companies would come in trying to sell us kits, and we’d say, “No thanks – we’ve built our own.”
The rep would try to tell us all the great things their kits could do, but we would then tell them that ours was significantly more efficient!
How did you get involved with the business environment of pharma?
During my second postdoc, without even realizing it at first, I came up with a couple of inventions. Suddenly, I was having conversations with companies and it was exciting! Around that same time, I was offered a lectureship at Leicester University in the UK, which was a great opportunity, but I was pretty sure that I didn’t want to stay in academia. I wanted to be in a place where I could use a broader set of skills.
I joined the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Technology Transfer Group in the late 1990s. Today, it is known as LifeArc, but back then it was only a small team of about 12 people. I was incredibly fortunate to work alongside some truly talented and knowledgeable people in that group.
For three years, I soaked up so much in that learning environment: intellectual property, licensing, deals, company formation, investment, etc.
The only catch was that I was still on postdoc pay, despite doing multimillion-pound deals! One deal stands out in particular. An inventor was going to receive a cheque from MRC that would not only clear his mortgage, but leave him with surplus cash – all in one month. The inventor said to me: “I bet your bonus this year will be brilliant!”
But we didn’t get bonuses. That’s when it hit me: I’d already done two or three pretty big deals and clearly could handle that kind of work – but I was still on postdoc pay.
So I left and joined a venture capital–backed company that was making vaccine components using transgenic techniques. For a good 12 years or so, I moved around a lot of biotech companies.
One of the highlights was working at the British Technology Group (BTG) for five years. It was a great experience. Their business model was to acquire or license-in cutting-edge intellectual property, develop it and the underlying technology, and either sell it or license it on. It was during that time I started to think about going solo one day. I wasn’t quite ready then, but the seed was planted.
What made you finally decide to set up your own company?
Fast forward to 2009. I’d been through a few more roles and ended up in the position I thought I’d always wanted: managing director of the British subsidiary of a Japanese-listed drug development company. It was a high-profile role and well paid, but I felt like I was just a posh administrator. I was just running things and it wasn’t me.
I did something a bit mad. I resigned. In the middle of the credit crunch. I had no job lined up and no backers. But I started what would become Murray International Partners Ltd. It went by a different name back then, but that was the core of it.
Honestly, my only regret is that I didn’t do it 10 years earlier, but you live and learn. I got the structure a bit wrong at first, but about 10 years ago, I sorted it out and really got it humming. I’ve loved it. It’s let me focus on what I call “deal management” – working with companies at all stages of development right in the heart of the commercial world.
The big corporates don’t often come to me unless they have something really weird on their hands. And I love weird, messy, complicated problems!
Today you’re also involved with start up companies, such as MetalloBio and Glox Therapeutics. What’s the story here?
In 2019, the Royal Society had just started the second year of a program where they place entrepreneurs-in-residence into universities across the UK. They fund one day a week over a two- or three-year period. I got a three-year stretch and was placed at the University of Sheffield. It was here that I met the co-founders of MetalloBio – an antimicrobials development company. I became chair when the company was incorporated in 2021.
Tragedy struck in October 2023. One of the co-founders, Kirsty Smitten passed away from cancer at just 29 years old. If no one else stepped into the CEO role then the company would fold. I offered to do it and the rest of the team agreed, so I scaled some of my work back with Murray.
Shortly after, I also got involved with another antimicrobials company called Glox Therapeutics. An investor I knew approached me and asked if I would consider taking the position of chair.
Both companies have a focus on antimicrobial approaches. Glox is working on bacteriocins, which are naturally produced, protein-based antibiotics made by bacteria. They are hitting every milestone.
MetalloBio is working more on traditional antibacterial compounds for a broad spectrum of bacterial pathogens, including Gram-negative and Gram-positive clinical isolates, but is developing compounds with completely novel inorganic chemistry. The company is also on schedule to hit its milestones.
In the field of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), no one really feels they’re in competition with other companies. We all know that solving AMR is going to require multiple tools. There won’t be a single modality – not just antibiotics, not just phage therapy, not just bacteriocins; they will all have a role.
How do you juggle all the different roles and responsibilities?
Honestly? I get bored easily! If something’s easy, I enjoy it the first time… but after that, I’ve had enough. Some people love a job that’s predictable and steady, but I just don’t get any satisfaction unless I’m busy. I like my brain to be pulled in all directions.
Before I started to work with MetalloBio and Glox, I would often juggle multiple clients. One day I’d be working on osteoporosis treatments, the next I’d be talking about over-the-counter supplements, or inflammatory disease reagents, or new compounds, or even medical devices. After a while, you get used to it.
This kind of multitasking also feeds back in useful ways because when you learn something in one discipline, it enhances what you can do in another. I absorbed a lot from all the different conversations with different clients.
The funding landscape is currently brutal. You’ve worked with a lot of companies over the years – what is your advice for companies looking to stand out?
First of all: it’s never too early to start talking to potential future funders. This is a massive mistake I see in a lot of startups and SMEs. They often think they won’t need funding for another 2 or 3 years, so there’s no point in talking to anyone yet.
But you need to start educating people and get them interested in you and let them track your progress because, by the time they are in a position to consider investing, they’ll want to have a sense of who you are, how you work, and how fast you move things along. If they see you’re hitting milestones, winning grants, and setting up collaborations, it paints you in a really positive light.
Second, a lot of SMEs are only looking a month or two ahead. When I work with companies, I spend a lot of time talking about the endgame and asking how they will get their product to market. A lot of companies shrug and say they won’t be the ones doing that. But they still need to understand how their innovation leaves their hands and gets to patients.
I do business training for life science professionals of all backgrounds, and it’s amazing how often you see that lightbulb moment. Having a sense of where you’re going and really understanding the challenges that lie in the way is very important.
Another issue is that a lot of early-stage startups are dominated by very powerful academics. Often, these are the companies that don’t do well because they completely underestimate what it takes in the business world.
Finally, from an early stage, start thinking about who you might approach for investment and do your homework about what you’ll be walking into. A lot of early-stage companies are shocked. “This investor is putting in £2.5 million and they want 40 percent of the company?!”
Of course they do – because you’ve only got £150,000 in the company right now.
How do companies go about meeting investors?
Most academic founders are far more comfortable going to a technical conference or a symposium than they are going to a networking event where there might be investors floating around!
And sometimes there is snobbery. Some scientists get exasperated because others don’t understand the depth of their science. But investors don’t need to know the minutiae of, for example, how electron orbital behaviour is different in your invention. It is all about how that translates into a potentially lucrative product opportunity. It’s a very different language that is required.
I think one of the most important things for scientific entrepreneurs is to surround themselves with people who are comfortable in the business world – people who know how it works and how it ticks.
I’ve also met some amazing academics who knew their limits but were willing to learn. One spin-out from the University of Sheffield springs to mind. Exciting Instruments was formed by Dr Tim Craggs. He came on one of my business training courses. After the first session, he said he’d learned “more in three hours than he’d learned in 15 years.”
He went on to form his company. He’s got sales, a massive team, and is making money. But he’s the exception, not the rule.
For most, it’s about being frank and open about what you don’t know – and then learning it and bringing in people, at the management level and board level, who can fill those gaps.
I’ve got the opposite problem. I’ve never led a drug development project before and now I’m CEO of a drug development company! So I’ve had to go out and find people who do understand what they are doing. The biggest risk I face is thinking I know something when I really don’t. I have to be on guard against that.
Ultimately, it’s all about getting the right people around you.
In an ideal world, what changes would you like to see to help new companies succeed?
I would like to see a change in mindset – particularly in the UK and Europe, where the investment psyche is very different compared to the US. In the US, when an investor says yes, it usually unlocks enough capital to actually do something. In the UK and Europe, there’s a preference to award incremental amounts and then review before giving more. This means that the C-suite is constantly out chasing money instead of delivering what that money is supposed to enable… it’s not an ideal situation!
There can also be a lot of bureaucracy. Both MetalloBio and Glox have been really well supported with public money, and both companies are doing great stuff. But there’s often this little collision between what a company needs and how a government or public sector body works. These organizations have procedures that are just so out of step with the pace and realities of a startup. For example, there can be in-depth time sheets and frequent requests such as: “Could you fill it out on this form, not that one?”
These tasks eat up a lot of time – and time is precious in drug development.
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