In 1998, Jonathan Milner would pedal his clapped-out bicycle between Cambridge’s hive of research laboratories. Perched on the back was an ice bucket crammed full with vials of antibodies. The fledgling entrepreneur was always broke. Milner was 33. He had convinced his wife, Rosy, to remortgage their new home, and had emptied the pockets of family and friends.
His hopes rested entirely on those buckets of antibodies — a basic tool needed by researchers trying to create new drugs.
“It was really touch and go for a couple of years,” he says with a grin, stretching back in his airy office in Cambridge.
His lonely cycle rides through the city’s windy streets have paid off. Today, Milner is one of the kingpins of Britain’s thriving biotech industry. Abcam, which was conceived in a university laboratory, is worth £2.1bn. And its founder is ploughing large chunks of his £207m fortune into promising new medical technologies.
Unsurprisingly, the laid-back 52-year-old is bullish about the prospects for Britain’s life sciences industry — centred in the “golden triangle” between Oxford and Cambridge universities, Imperial College London and UCL. “I always say this is our golden age,” says Milner, in his slow, confident drawl. “In the 1980s it was computing, but today it’s biology.”
Advertisement
Decked out in slacks, trainers and checked shirt, Milner looks more like a tech entrepreneur than science geek, and it was the founder of one of the world’s largest internet companies who provided his inspiration. “I discovered this company that nobody else had heard of at the time,” says Milner. “It was called Amazon and I thought it was brilliant.”
Antibodies are to scientists what tools are for handymen. Abcam is the biotech world’s equivalent of B&Q — providing the building blocks of the human immune system, for research purposes, through an online bazaar.
The prospect of being able to “go to a website, and just order an antibody”,was too tempting to pass up, says Milner. Using the data he gleaned from online orders, Milner was able to build a much more sophisticated service than traditional antibodies sellers, who listed their wares in catalogues.
High-quality antibodies are needed to perform effective tests, and measure the reactions of experimental drugs. Milner invited scientists to review Abcam’s products, providing up-to-date information for colleagues across the world.
“Antibodies are to scientists what tools are for handymen. Abcam is the biotech equivalent of B&Q
Today the company sells to two-thirds of the world’s 750,000 life sciences researchers in 100 countries. Its antibodies are used to discover cures for conditions such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. It floated on London’s junior AIM market in 2005, and now employs more than 1,000 people. Milner says he is “proud” that he never “sold out” to a foreign buyer — despite having many opportunities.
Advertisement
Leicester-born Milner was always destined for a career in the drugs business. After attending Portsmouth Grammar School, he studied applied biology at the University of Bath. Just as he was about to begin a PhD in Dundee, his father fell ill with lung cancer. He opted to take his doctorate in Leicester, which was closer to home.
When he was offered a post-doctoral position, sponsored by Pfizer, at Bath University, his father broke down in tears. “I hadn’t realised how worried he was about my career,” he says.
It was his father’s subsequent death that drove Milner to search for a position in cancer research. He followed his then-girlfriend Rosy to Cambridge, where she had landed a job as an art historian. “She is very important to the story,” adds Milner, “because that’s how I ended up in Cambridge.”
It was while working in a lab that Milner became frustrated because he could not find the required research tools. Armed with an £11,000 loan from Northern Rock, he and his friend David Cleevely, a telecoms entrepreneur, founded Abcam nearly two decades ago.
Like most scientists, Milner struggled with the transition from the lab to the boardroom. It was Cleevely, then chairman of Abcam, who dedicated his Saturday mornings to teaching Milner the basics of VAT, how to register a business, and how to hire and fire.
Advertisement
After 16 years as chief executive, Milner moved into the deputy chairman’s seat in 2014, handing over the reins to Alan Hirzel, a former Bain & Company management consultant. The move allowed him to invest in early-stage ventures. Today Milner sits on the board of 10 companies and has invested in a further 30.
Among those is Horizon Discovery, a gene-editing company that supplies tools to scientists. Darrin Disley, its chief executive, says Milner invested £1m within 18 months. “Abcam was worth a lot less then. This was a significant amount of his personal money that Jonathan invested. Talk about backing management!” says Disley, 50.
Milner has also turned his attention to the biggest challenges facing the pharmaceuticals industry. He says more government money should be diverted towards the growing crisis in antimicrobial resistance. “We are really going to be in trouble if we don’t come up with new antibiotics,” he warns. “In academia it’s not a sexy topic to work on.”
Another existential concern is preventing public healthcare systems from collapsing under the weight of ballooning development costs and ageing populations. Drugs companies are under pressure to reduce prices for large customers, such as the NHS. In the US, meanwhile, continued political and public scrutiny over the eye-watering cost of treatments is raising alarms with big pharma.
Milner says the drugs business is in need of fundamental reform. “The whole system of drug discovery is really broken. It’s taking too long and there are too many failures of these drugs in the pipeline,” he says. The average drug costs £1.6bn to create, with nine out of ten failing before they reach patients.
Advertisement
“It’s ridiculously expensive,” he says. “Patients aren’t getting a good deal and pharmaceuticals companies aren’t getting a good deal either because their pipelines are drying up.”
Here, Milner has put his money where his mouth is and given £5m to help academia collaborate with the big drugs companies, creating the Milner Therapeutics Institute.
This tie-up is likely to be even more important when Britain leaves the European Union. Milner, like most biotech industry leaders, is concerned that foreign-born scientists will desert the UK. “It’s essential we retain the talent that is here and continue to attract people,” he says. “We’re not a big enough country to home-grow it all ourselves.”
His second concern is money. The UK is a net recipient of EU cash for research. It has received 15.4% of all the funding from Horizon 2020, the EU programme for research and innovation.
However, the uncertainty over Brexit is already drying up funding and collaboration between British and European universities, according to Milner. “I’ve heard it anecdotally from all my academic colleagues,” he adds. “Funding bodies are reluctant to give cash to the UK.”
Advertisement
If this funding problem is not solved, Britain could “start to lose talent and you wouldn’t get the inward investment”, he warns. That would be a calamity both for patients and the broader economy.
“For every £1 [of grant money] you spend on life sciences investment, you get a £10 return,” he says.
The life of Jonathan Milner
Vital statistics
Born: May 3, 1965
Status: married, three teenage children
School: Portsmouth Grammar
Universities: Bath and Leicester
First job: barman in a pub near Portsmouth
Salary: £70,000 from Abcam, plus other fees
Homes: Cambridge and Athens
Car: BMW i3
Favourite book: To Kill a Mockingbird
Film: Master and Commander
Music: Canadian rock trio Rush
Gadget: iPhone
Last holiday: scuba-diving in Mykonos
Charity: Galapagos Conservation Trust
Working day
Jonathan Milner is usually up by 6am to walk his dogs, before arriving at his office at about 8am. After stepping down as Abcam’s chief executive in 2014, his weeks are much more varied. Milner sits on the boards of 10 companies, and on occasion will work until 8pm.
About three times a week he meets fledgling start-ups that are looking for money, and typically makes two or three new investments each year.
He likes to keep fit, working out in his office gym three days a week.
Downtime
Milner and his Greek-born wife, Rosy, are both day skippers, and charter a sailing yacht each year in the Ionian Sea. Milner picked up a love of sailing while at school, where he was in the Navy cadets.
Later this year he is taking his fourth trip to the Galapagos Islands, with a scientific advisory panel from Bath University. He likes to retrace Darwin’s steps. He also enjoys walking his dogs — the family has four — and is learning modern Greek.