M2M ENCORE: Founding and Selling Three Bio CDMOs

In this special encore episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Mark Bamforth OBE, serial entrepreneur, investor and mentor to CEOs.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, revisits one of Molecule to Market’s most memorable conversations, bringing together Mark’s original two-part story of building and selling three biotech CDMOs for a combined value of $2.5bn.

Raman and Mark discuss the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain, covering:

• Mark’s unconventional journey from North Sea oil and the whisky industry to spending 22 years at Genzyme and ultimately leading a global manufacturing network
• Leaving corporate life to build Gallus Biopharmaceuticals, and the baptism of fire that came with raising money for a self funded CDMO carve out
• The strategy and timing behind Gallus and its eventual sale to Patheon
• Spotting the opportunity in viral vectors early, and building Brammer Bio from start up to its $1.7bn acquisition by Thermo Fisher
• Building Arranta Bio across microbiome, plasmid and mRNA capabilities, before an unsolicited approach led to its sale to Recipharm
• Mark’s ability to spot where the market is heading, sometimes before conventional wisdom catches up
• Leadership lessons from more than two decades at Genzyme and three successful founder to exit journeys
• How he thinks about investing, mentoring CEOs and building businesses in complex, fast moving markets

Mark Bamforth OBE is a serial entrepreneur, investor and mentor to CEOs. He is currently CEO of disAMR, whose mission is to accelerate scientific, financial and policy solutions to protect modern medicine from antimicrobial resistant infections.

He is also Executive Board Chair of Kincellis, an advanced therapies CDMO, General Partner of the Kineticos AMR Accelerator Fund, and serves on the boards of Enterobiotix, Continuus Pharma and the Saltire Foundation USA.

Previously, Mark founded, built and sold three PE backed biotech CDMOs, Gallus Biopharmaceuticals, Brammer Bio and Arranta Bio, over a 12 year period for a combined value of $2.5bn.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mark spent 22 years at Genzyme in the UK and US, latterly running a global manufacturing operation spanning 12 sites in nine countries and producing more than 20 commercial products.

He began his career as a petroleum engineer exploring for North Sea oil with Britoil, before moving into the whisky industry as a chemical engineer with Whitbread.

Mark holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Strathclyde University and an MBA from Henley Management College. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, OBE, for services to the biotech industry and UK USA business relations.

Connect with him on LinkedIn.

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