SME of the Month March - Onyx Scientific Ltd

Main activities of the company 
Provision of chemistry contract research and development services to the pharmaceutical industry.

Total number of people employed
48 in total (40 chemistry B.Sc. 25 PhD) 

Company start date
June 2000 

Company history
The company was started by Dr Tony Flinn CChem FRSC who recognised that there was a niche in the market for small-scale chemistry services.  He brought together a team of chemists from ChiRex to comprise the initial founders.  The company received help from various organisations including Entrust and HSBC.
The company has been managed by Dr Tony Flinn, Chief Executive Officer throughout it's existence.

Key activities
Onyx Scientific Ltd provides chemistry services to the pharmaceutical industry. Included are custom synthesis (mg to Kg), process R&D, medicinal chemistry, scale-up and GMP manufacturing for up to Phase II clinical trials in addition to a range of analytical services.   In addition we have a list of proprietary fine chemicals, mainly chiral intermediates which we have developed unique chemistry in order make.

Our main business is doing contract synthesis for the pharmaceutical industry and we have a customer base in excess of 60 companies. This is mainly in the UK but we are increasingly developing business with US and mainland European companies.  The commercial department is staffed with 3 chemistry graduates, 2 of whom have chemistry PhDs.  Onyx supplies services to 6 of the world's top 7 pharmaceutical companies plus a raft of smaller biotechs.

The company hires mainly chemistry graduates (~40) and the synthetic chemists are predominantly PhD qualified (~25).  We operate from self-built state of the art chemical facilities in Sunderland with reaction vessels up to 50 litre capacity.  An analytical department supports the synthetic activities and we have 6 (BSc) qualified analysts.

Most of our analytical work is carried out in-house.  We have an extensive range of analytical equipment including 270MHz NMR, various prep and analytical HPLC systems and numerous other types plus a stability suite designed to evaluate compound stability at various temperatures and humidity levels.

The company was started in 2000 by Dr Tony Flinn cchem FRSC who brought together a team of experienced chemists and analysts.  The founding team plus some outside investment then grew the business organically, reinvesting every penny made in the business.  In 2004 the company won the 2003 North East Small Business of the Year Award and was cited as the 19th fastest growing technology company in the UK according to the Sunday Times/Microsoft Tech Track awards. 

Progress has not always been smooth and like many companies Onyx has seen some severe ups and downs.  In 2003 one of the founders, Dr Steve Bone, R&D Director died of cancer in July of that year.  In June Dr Tony Flinn the CEO suffered a major cycling accident resulting in a spinal cord injury and paralysis from the chest down.  After an absence of about 6 months Tony returned to the business and has helped grow it to today's level where the company expects to turn over almost £4m with in excess of £400k profit before tax.

The company is looking to continue expansion and is currently building additional GMP and non GMP facilities.

Company Finance
Tony created the business and the financial plan.  Initially the company secured the rights to commercialise some technology from the University of Durham, discovered by Dr David O'Hagan. The costs of this were covered by sales of products derived from the technology.  A contract for ~£250,000 was secured with Aldrich Chemical company.

Investment in the company was sought from investors but after some time the main investment was restricted to founders plus one angel investor.

2 units at Sunderland Enterprise Park were leased (1200m2) initially. The company has since expanded into a 3rd unit. The company built and equipped it's own facilities.

What the future holds
The company marketed itself via web site, exhibitions and trade shows, conferences, direct marketing and direct contact.  The main obstacles were developing new customers from scratch, and using the funds generated to continually invest in the business.

The company is currently actively recruiting and is trying to grow it's core business as fast as possible.  In addition we expect to expand the range of services offered in order to 'become the chemistry department of a pharmaceutical company'.

We are looking at 20%+ organic growth per year plus 'add-on's' as well as consolidate and develop an intellectual property portfolio.