OUR EXPERTISE
Founders
Dr Paul McKen
Paul is an experienced Management Consultant, who has worked within the pharmaceutical industry for more than 18 years. Trained as a pharmaceutical chemist, he spent most of his industrial career with Merck & Co, where he held several senior management positions. Paul moved to work for PA Consulting, within the Technology Practice, where he worked with several major pharmaceutical companies in a variety of assignments, including manufacturing cost reduction, operational effectiveness, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and technology transfer. Paul founded his own consultancy in 2001, working with both larger pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and co-founded Plexsus in May 2005.
Jackie Turnbull
Jackie is an experienced Business Development Consultant, who has worked within the pharmaceutical and biotech industry for more than 18 years. Trained as a pharmacist, she has worked for several pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Novo Nordisk. Following a short spell working for PA Consulting, she was one of the first people to join GeneMedix, a start-up company focusing on biogenerics, where she worked as the Commercial Director for five years. GeneMedix was taken public, on London (FTSE) and Singapore stock exchanges, and entered commercial deals in China, India, Malaysia and the USA. Jackie is co-founder of Amsha therapeutics, a biotech company, and co-founded Plexsus in May 2005.
Consultants
The Plexsus team of consultants comprises an in-house team as well as external specialists with whom the company has well-established relationships. The team has experience in the manufacture, development and commercialisation of biotech and pharmaceutical products and each person in excess of 18 years’ relevant industry experience.
Financial Expertise
Headquartered in Brussels, ProSeed Capital Holdings CVA is a dynamic holding company active primarily in Europe, the US and Israel with offices in Brussels, Boston, and Tel-Aviv. Through its independent business units, ProSeed’s main activities consist of seed investments, advisory and consulting services and corporate development services for biomedical companies.
Legal Experts
Plexsus works with Hewitsons, a Cambridge based company recognised as a specialist in the area of pharmaceuticals and biotech. The Hewitsons team’s practical experience of and familiarity with bioscience and pharmaceutical work is illustrated by:
- More than 20 years’ experience of the industry
- Published work by key Hewitsons advisers in the bioscience and pharmaceutical fields
- Membership of and involvement in the BioIndustry Association (particularly its Intellectual Property Advisory Committee), the Eastern Region Biotechnology Initiative (ERBI) and the Oxfordshire Bioscience Network
- Mentoring for the DTI’s Biotechnology Mentoring and Incubator Challenge
- Involvement in the consultative stages of legislation
- Frequent conference speaking at high-profile industry events in the UK and abroad
Patent Advice
Plexsus works with Elkington and Fife LLP, a leading firm of patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys founded in 1927. The partners are acknowledged experts in their fields and have a thorough understanding of how intellectual property is best used by commercial and industrial organisations, having either worked in industry or worked closely with large businesses.
The Company works in all areas of intellectual property (IP), including patents (and SPCs), trade marks and registered designs, as well as design-right, industrial copyright and passing off. The broad-range of services offered by Elkington and Fife LLP include the preparation, filing and prosecution of UK, European and international patent applications, of UK, Community and foreign trade mark applications and of registered design applications. In addition to these fundamental services, it provides assistance in the development and maintenance of intellectual property strategies.
The Company instructs a network of foreign associates, built up over many years, for the filing and prosecution of rights overseas and, as would be expected, has extensive experience of opposition and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office.
