Asier Unciti-Broceta

Professor Unciti-Broceta has a strong interest in translational research and is an inventor of patent-granted and licensed technologies. He and Professor Neil Carragher have led the discovery of a novel drug candidate for hard-to-treat cancers known as NXP900, which was the culmination of over a decade of collaborative research. In 2021 NXP900 was licensed by US biopharmaceutical company Nuvectis Pharma, Inc. in a multi-million-dollar deal facilitated by Edinburgh Innovations, and in September 2023 Nuvectis began clinical trials, marking a significant move towards a medicine that could treat some of the toughest cancers.

“I have been working with Edinburgh Innovations for many years and have had a fantastic experience with them. In the case of licensing our kinase inhibitor NXP900 we worked with EI as one team, each of us playing our part, and we were successful in signing one of the best licence deals in the University of Edinburgh’s history. 

Licensing a novel drug is no easy task. Even if we believe that we have a superb candidate, finding interested parties requires a lot of time and effort. Edinburgh Innovations has a wealth of experience in this area, so they took charge of these efforts and found us a range of potential industry partners that were interested in our IP.

“EI also led the selection process, their Tech Transfer team assessed the value of our assets and analysed many deals in the Pharma sector before negotiating fair and reasonable commercial terms for all parties. Thanks to this, we continue to work with Nuvectis Pharma to this day.”