About

Track Record

The Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde have enjoyed a long history of working together. This working relationship has been strengthened by formal recognition of each other as the preferred partner in research. The 'Synergy' partnership creates one of the UK's largest knowledge bases with a combined research funding portfolio in the order of £100M per annum.

• In the biomedical fields, research income exceeds £44 million per annum
• Total number of researchers in the biomedical field across both universities is more than 1000
• 70% of the biomedical research departments are rated 5 and above in the UK Government Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), demonstrating recognition of the research excellence of the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde
• The University of Glasgow's Medical School, one of the largest in Europe, is an integral element of PharmaLinks
• PharmaLinks accesses clinicians from all the hospitals in the West of Scotland

Working with the pharmaceutical industry

• £12 million research income per annum generated from the pharmaceutical industry
• The Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde have had contracts with 42 out of the world's top 50 pharmaceutical companies in the last five years
• Strathclyde University alone has generated £30 million from drug related royalties 
• The PharmaLinks team has experience of working with pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies in Europe, USA, Korea and Japan

Successful innovation

Products on the market and techniques widely adopted as a result of successful research at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde include:

• Tracrium - the muscle relaxant atracurium was designed and synthesised at Strathclyde and developed by GlaxoWellcome as Tracrium
• Norcuron and Esmeron - a collaborative project with Organon leading to these products
• Hydrogel drug delivery systems have been developed by RP Scherer, Controlled Therapeutics and CeNes
• Monoclonal antibody research - innovative research led to the creation of Rhône Diagnostics
• Test for levels of blood homocysteine developed with Axis-Shield Diagnostics as a key aid in diagnosing heart disease
• Widely used techniques devised to check cystic fibrosis therapy given to children is not damaging liver function