The company was founded in 2014 as a staff start-up from the University of Liverpool’s chemistry department. LCC now employs 28 staff at The Heath. CEO of LCC Technologies says “Our growth has been supported by >£10m of venture capital investment and we have supported >100 biotech and pharma companies around the world with their drug discovery projects.

As a chemistry-based R&D company, access to chemistry labs is essential for our operations. Unfortunately, and as you know, there is a national shortage of lab space, and an even more acute shortage of chemistry labs (due to the increased costs of chemistry labs requiring air handling). Liverpool Science Park and Manchester Science Park don’t have chemistry labs. Simply put, LCC would not exist today if it wasn’t for The Heath. This is because The Heath was the only science park that had ready-to-go chemistry labs that were ready for LCC to walk into with only a few weeks’ notice period (as opposed to e.g. Sci-tech Daresbury, which could only offer empty shell labs that needed to be kitted out at LCC’s expense and over a 6-12 month time frame that required a quantum of capex and cashflow certainty that an SME such as LCC could never provide to commit to the project, thus putting us in a holding pattern of operating in uncertainty within the University incubator space and never committing to the move).

Chemistry is a foundational science. Without chemistry, life sciences cannot happen. If the North-West doesn’t have access to facilities such as The Heath, it cannot logically expect to develop and sustain a vibrant life-science ecosystem that can be grown by the development of SME’s commercializing IP generated within its world-leading research institutions. Without post-incubator spaces like The Heath, the sector growth will be limited to that from big companies who can fund their own infrastructure”.

LCC has now been acquired by a $5bn company overseas who wants to invest in the Liverpool City Region because of the access to talent and tech here.

For more information go to: www.lcctechnologies.com