The debut episode of Innovation Unlocked by Mathys & Squire features Lord Paul Drayson, multi-business entrepreneur, current chairman of a new AI company and well-established politician.
In “How To Build A Business From Scratch,” Lord Paul Drayson shares the key motivations behind his career journey, his development of the patent box policy as Minister for Science and Innovation, and the vital role intellectual property has played in the success of his many ventures with host Andrew White.
You can listen to the episode on Spotify here.
Episode summary
Topics discussed🎙️
- The beginnings of Lord Paul Drayson’s career, and his early passion for science and engineering.
- Lord Drayson’s entrepreneurial journey from a snack food invention to founding a major vaccine manufacturer.
- Intellectual property as a strategic asset in biotech development and funding, and the importance of collaborating with patent attorneys and crafting commercially strong patent claims.
- His development of the UK Patent Box policy: its impact and how it helped anchor IP-led manufacturing in the UK.
- His latest venture, Acapella AI (now Locai Labs), founded by his sons, and how conversational AI is rapidly evolving.
- The UK’s position in the global AI race and policy challenges ahead.
- Reflections on the UK’s innovation ecosystem: systematic challenges in scaling UK tech companies, why UK companies exit too early and leveraging data assets like the NHS for innovation.
Key takeaways💡
- IP isn’t just protection, it’s a strategy: Strong, well-crafted patents influence R&D direction and enable company growth, investment and eventual sale, which for Lord Drayson’s vaccine company, PowderJect, was £500 million.
- Early patenting matters: Filing before public disclosure is crucial in sectors like biotech, where patents drive funding and value.
- Policy with purpose: Drayson’s role in developing the Patent Box demonstrates how policy can directly influence investment and manufacturing decisions.
- Scaling UK businesses: The UK must incentivise founders to grow and retain companies locally rather than exiting early.
- AI is a rapidly changing and exciting sector: The current pace of change in AI, and technology in general, outstrips previous waves of innovation, presenting both opportunities and regulatory challenges for the UK.
Notable quotes🔊
- “Something I’ve certainly said to my kids which I’ll say to others is do your science homework. Do your maths homework. Because sometimes the most interesting things in life come out of having done that.”
- “It was the [patent] claim which defined the size of the particle, which had to be less than the diameter of a skin cell, which enabled us to build a whole new range of vaccines around DNA vaccines. […] That boiled down to a conversation between us and the patent agent.”
- “What we wanted to do was to find a way to encourage that, where companies had invested in R&D in the UK and had created new intellectual property, that if they manufactured those products in the UK, they would get a tax advantage. […] It just shows how important government policy can be, providing it’s based upon real understanding of the wealth creation process.”
- “It’s also been astonishing how quickly the technology is developing. I finished my PhD in 1986 and started my first business so I’ve been through the waves of innovation, the development of the internet in the late 1990s, going to mobile, and I have never seen technology change so fast with such impact as we’re experiencing now.”
- “You can’t stop people doing what they want to do. What you have to do is implement policies which encourage people to start businesses here, build businesses here and keep those businesses here.”
