| Company name: | Upperton Ltd | Contact name & Job Title | Richard Johnson, CEO |
| Project title: | Business Expansion Feasibility Study | Month/year | August 2017 |
| Case study writer: | Merle Harrison | Account Manager | Melanie Davidson |
| The background to the case study |
| Upperton is a contract R&D company providing spray drying services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. They are currently developing their offering to include non-GMP formulation development .
Upperton was established in 1999 and currently has 15 employees- this will increase to 16 by year end 2017. |
| The challenge / trigger event |
| Until the point of application, Upperton’s main focus had been its core spray drying services, and marketing itself as a pharmaceutical spray drying business.
In 2016, the company looked to expand the business, increase the number of jobs it offered and maintain the company turnover. It looked into additional services it could offer customers, particularly in drug delivery. Upperton looked to further work on its powders to enhance the delivery of drugs to the lung, nasal cavity and Gastrointestinal tract. In order to carry out this business expansion feasibility study, Upperton looked to engage an experienced service provider to: · Explore new business areas and evaluate the size of the new business market, and identify a strategic route to market · Determine what capabilities were required in order to move into the new business market · Develop a strategy for launch the new Upperton service to achieve maximum market potential |
| The solution |
| Upperton applied for a Medilink East Midlands Innovation Support Grant to: evaluate the size of the new market, determine the capabilities required to exploit the new market and develop a strategy for launching the new Upperton Service to achieve maximum market potential.
Upperton was awarded an Innovation Support Grant of £3,240 as part of the ERDF-funded INSTILS project. |
| The results / evaluation |
| In expanding its services and capabilities, Upperton has been able to re-focus some of its resources and into new, profitable revenue generating areas and services.
This also has the potential to increase the company turnover and expand the service offering into a wider market segment. From 2015 to 2017, the company turnover has increased fourfold. As a result of receiving the grant, Upperton is hoping to focus more of its efforts into the dosage form development, in particular drug delivery whereby Upperton can not only spray dry for its customers but add new services, such as formulation development to compliment and further process and test the powders that Upperton produces for its customers. This will involve the development of final delivery formulations for use in oral, nasal and pulmonary delivery. No human or financial resources were available for this expansion without the support of Medilink and the grant provided. |