OBN Strikes Up Partnership with BioCity; Appoints Senior Buyer for Member Companies

OXFORD, NOTTINGHAM, MANCHESTER and NEWHOUSE, England, November 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

OBN, the membership organisation supporting and bringing together the UK's emerging life science companies, their corporate partners and investors, is pleased to announce the closing of a long-term agreement with the BioCity group of sites that include BioCity in Nottingham, MediCity (BioCity at Boots) also in Nottingham, BioCity Newhouse (Scotland) and BioHub, Alderley Park, Manchester. BioCity is the UK's leading bioscience incubator and supports nearly 100 businesses. Taken together with OBN's membership of 240 companies, the partnership has the buying power of 340 firms spanning the Golden Triangle of Oxford, London and Cambridge, as well as Nottingham, Manchester and Scotland.

Under the terms of the agreement, OBN will provide the BioCity tenant companies direct access to the OBN Purchasing Consortium which can offer substantial savings on everything from laboratory supplies, reagents and equipment right through to office stationery and furniture. In addition, the tenants of BioCity will be able to take advantage of the procurement expertise and support to be provided by OBN's new fulltime Purchasing Group Development Manager, Lee Pratley.

Lee joins OBN with more than 8 years experience in the sector and was most recently the Senior Technical Buyer at UCB where he negotiated significant laboratory capex savings (in excess of 25%). Prior to UCB, Lee was the Senior Purchasing Officer at (OSI) Prosidion. His experience with small and large companies will only add to the support, advice and guidance that will be available to BioCity tenants and OBN members.

Commenting on the agreement Jon Rees, CEO of OBN, said, "OBN is delighted to be able to provide this valuable service to tenant companies within BioCity who will be able to generate significant cash saving benefits from immediate use of the scheme. OBN's investment in our members' interests, through the expertise of Lee Pratley, will mean that BioCity tenants and OBN members will also save significant management time through the purchasing support now available, especially around project initiation, ongoing buying and large capital purchases."

Toby Reid, Director at BioCity, Nottingham added, "We are delighted to engage with OBN's Purchasing Consortium and are very excited about  the  potential savings and the additional benefit of purchasing expertise that will be provided to support our companies."

The OBN Purchasing Consortium is available to OBN Full Members. Please contact Lee Pratley, Purchasing Group Development Manager at lee.pratley@obn.org.uk or by phone on +44(0)845-5049-715 if you or your company are interested in finding out more about the scheme and membership of OBN.

About OBN

OBN is the membership organisation supporting and bringing together the UK's emerging life science companies, corporate partners and investors within the Golden Triangle biocluster (formed by the cities of Oxford, Cambridge and London) and beyond, providing networking, partnering, group purchasing, advocacy and advice. Through our delivery of Europe's third largest annual biopartnering and investment conference 'BioTrinity', which is expected to attract 1000+ delegates from 30 countries, OBN will generate more R&D-company-to-investor interactions than anyone else in Europe. For further information on OBN and its activities, please visit: http://www.obn.org.uk or to find out more about BioTrinity, please visit http://www.biotrinity.com

About BioCity

BioCity is the UK's leading bioscience incubator, providing the conditions that sustain more than 90 fast-growing businesses. BioCity provides the ideal conditions for biotech, pharmaceutical and healthcare start-ups, and an established community of people who share the goal of turning new ideas into commercial success. By providing accommodation, facilities, expertise and access to finance, BioCity has become an international centre for new thinking in bioscience business, with more than 90 companies across sites in both England, including BioCity Nottingham and MediCity, BioHub at Alderley Park and BioCity Scotland in Newhouse. Also see http://www.biocity.co.uk/

Contacts

OBN
David Boal, Director of Business Development
Tel: +44(0)845-5049-743
david.boal@obn.org.uk

Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Janine Hagan
Tel: +44(0)20-7638-9571
Janine.Hagan@citigatedr.co.uk