From MBO to global, family-run CRO

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Graham Wylie, Executive Chairman at the Medical Research Network (MRN).

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Graham, covering:

• Transitioning from Pfizer’s in-house R&D team to a senior commercial BD role at Parexel
• The brutal experience of leading an MBO deal and why you should go into any deal with ‘your eyes open’
• How the fast-paced CRO world has evolved over the last 20 years, and what the future may hold for the clinical trials space
• How Graham built an entrepreneurial, family business with a view on the long term plan that includes his wife and kids
• How being used to fast growth as a specialist CRO better prepared MRN for the impact of C19 and 90% growth

Dr Graham Wylie graduated in pharmacology in 1982 and then in medicine in 1987. He moved into the Pharma industry in 1989, spending 10 years at Pfizer and 5 years at Parexel in many different forms of clinical trial management before joining Healthcare at Home to create a trials division. He led an MBO to make this a separate company in 2006 and was CEO and majority owner for 16 years, until September 2022, when he passed over the CEO role to one of his (younger) co-founders, and became Executive Chairman. Through that period MRN enjoyed an average growth rate of 35% through feast and famine and continues to be one of the fastest-growing founder-led businesses in the UK.

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Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.