SCOTLAND'S life sciences sector is losing two of its highest-profile leaders, Barbara Blaney and Magnus Nicolson, to the Middle East, Scotland on Sunday has learnt.
As director of the BioIndustry Association (BIA) in Scotland over the past seven years, Blaney has played a critical role in attracting investment to life sciences firms north of the border.
She is following her husband Nicolson, former chief exe
cutive of the Stirling-based pharmaceutical EctoPharma, to Qatar where he will join Virgin Health Bank as chief operations officer. Virgin Health Bank is a joint venture between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and the Qatar Foundation and conducts research into cord blood stem cell therapies.
Their departure will deal a blow to the life sciences industry in Scotland, which Alex Salmond's Government is hoping will develop into one of the country's biggest cash generators in the future.
Blaney told Scotland on Sunday she plans to start her own bio-consultancy firm in Qatar. Dr Sarah Goulding, who is currently in charge of research policy and membership at the BIA, will take over as acting Scottish director when Blaney departs on 24 July.
Analysts said the loss of the life sciences power couple could not come at a worse time for the industry in Scotland, which is struggling to persuade investors to back start-up drug development firms in particular.
Neil McInnes, life sciences specialist at accountancy firm Grant Thornton, said that at present investors are only willing to back projects which have a strong success rate. Many biotech firms, in particular drug development companies, are viewed as high-risk. "Investors are only looking for defensive-type opportunities at the moment," McInnes said.
The industry in Scotland is still in its infancy despite millions of pounds of Government investment over the past decade. Critics say Scotland still struggles to convert the leading research coming out of its universities into commercial enterprises.
The few companies that have been successfully spun out of academic institutions have often become takeover targets by multinationals.
Life sciences contribute £3billion to the Scottish economy but the global industry is thought to be worth more than £800bn. Before the recession, Scottish Finance Minister John Swinney set the industry the ambitious goal of becoming one of the world's top locations for life sciences by 2020.
