Moments of crisis always mean change. In these times, it’s tempting to reach for quotes from leaders who successfully navigated through turbulent times. “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” is one often attributed to Churchill and requires us to remain level-headed despite the widespread panic. 

Companies founded during times of turmoil, like GE, IBM, and Microsoft, know that if they can make their business work during times of upheaval, they can go on to be even more successful in times of stability.

When humans and businesses face uncertainty, they must embrace it if they are to awaken inner creative abilities. A look back in history illustrates that crises and extreme threats can be useful for directing individuals, a country or the world to a solution. 

Once a crisis is in motion, turning it into an opportunity often requires new ways of seeing, thinking, and responding. Applying traditional responses may lessen the pain temporarily, but to lay the foundations for long-term prosperity, it’s essential to focus on solving the underlying problem.

It’s now time to consider a new digital business model, a different approach based on the availability of data and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

So, how does the pharmaceutical industry continue to engage HCPs during this crisis – and more importantly, what will be the long-lasting impact?

The restriction of movement, cancellation of key industry events and global travel bans have all impacted the ability to engage HCPs in person. The obvious answer is to increase the use of digital solutions like remote video calling. Veeva Systems has acted quickly, recently announcing a back-up solution for current CRM users They are offering Engage Meeting, a product designed to enhance HCP-to-sales rep communication via web-based audio and video content sharing capabilities, free of charge for six months. This is a commendable initiative and will go a long way to bridging our communication needs during this period.

Overcoming communication challenges with HCPs is far more complex than simply enabling remote engagement.

However, as the impact of COVID-19 worsens, merely moving to digital is not sufficient. Indeed, if you believe it will solve your problems, you are deluded.

Using technology to drive physician engagement is not new. Already, two thirds of HCPs are digital natives, and by 2025, 75% of the workforce will be millennials or younger. According to Across Health, tools like virtual e-detailing (without the presence of the rep) and eRep (live remote e-detailing) are seeing wide adoption with over 50% of pharma piloting or using this technology as standard practice. In the countries which currently account for over 86% of the first five years of New Active Substance sales, HCP engagement is very much digital. However, there still remains a divide between what pharma delivers and what HCPs require.

Overcoming communication challenges with HCPs is far more complex than simply enabling remote engagement. Delivering generic brand messages, whether in-person or virtually, is no longer good enough. Sales representatives must bring value to HCPs that are personalised. What is critical to supporting this personalisation? It is the ability to have systems support HCP engagement with data – delivering powerful insights based on a granular understanding for example of patient populations, the environment and historic activity that drives outcome.

These times of uncertainty must inspire us to seek solutions that close this divide between what Pharma delivers and what HCPs want. Switching from face-to-face interaction to remote video, for example, is an absolute minimum requirement for companies to continue engaging with their customers. But what do HCPs want and need? It’s now time to consider a new digital business model, a different approach and design based on the availability of data and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

Does facilitating the HCP-sales conversation via digital channels (video, audio and email, etc.) help close the divide? It helps, but to truly close the divide we must deliver more value to both sales reps and HCPs. We must empower the sales teams with the ability to focus on engaging HCPs where the need is greatest, support them with suggestions around what conversations can be had and deliver the evidence they need to take action by explaining why.

Utilising data and AI will enable teams to both see and think differently about customers, at scale. Reps must be empowered to select the most suitable engagement method (remote or otherwise) that delivers value to the HCP.

As COVID-19 takes hold, how will reps decide on who to organise a video call with or who should get an email?

• Should it be everyone?
• Should it be those I can’t get access to?
• Should it be my target customers?
• Should it be the doctors I have a good relationship with?

In the future, how should reps decide on who to organise a video call with or who should get an email?

• It should be where the highest opportunity exists and reps know why
• It should be the highest priority HCPs and reps know why
• It should be where the highest urgency exists and reps know why

As further restrictions around the movement of sales reps are inevitable, utilising digital channels effectively will become critical for Pharmaceutical companies. Those two thirds of HCPs who identify as digital natives will only increase in number over the coming years, increasing the incidence of remote HCP-sales engagements as we move into 2021 and beyond. 

To drive the behaviour change desperately needed in our industry, engaging with HCPs remotely must be supported with intelligent AI recommendations. After all, if we change behaviour we can change the outcome.

• OKRA’s new FieldFocus solution combines multiple historical data sources to predict the future. Validated by top pharma, the system delivers the highest opportunity, priority and urgency of a potential engagement directly to the reps and then delivers suggestions on what could be discussed and why.

For more information visit OKRA.ai

Without a comprehensive testing program, the use of Big Data and help from large high technology companies efforts to permanently suppress COVID-19 will be limited to random – and in some cases highly destructive – stabs in the dark.

Schools are now closed and with them a window of opportunity to use mass testing for COVID-19 to build a model of how the virus has been exploiting gaps in our knowledge to spread by stealth,writes Cambridge technology innovator Peter Kruger. 

At some point, if we are to protect ourselves from this virus and its derivatives we must carry out comprehensive testing and develop intelligent computer technology to process the results.

The advantage of schools, from the point of view of disease monitoring is, thanks to OFSTED, their uniformity of operation and a standard interface with the local community. 

Employees of a hairdressing salon in Hartlepool will interact with each other differently than the staff of a restaurant in Reading. However, teachers and pupils interact in much the same way no matter where in the country their school is located. Also, when it comes to viruses, a school acts much like the canary in the coal mine, being responsible for one of the two or three degrees separating everyone in its catchment area.

Why might Britain need to test large numbers of people showing no obvious signs disease and who are not considered to be of risk? Perhaps to solve a puzzle which suggests COVID-19 may be unique in the way it is transmitted.

Cambridge, as far as the virus is concerned, has proved something of an enigma. The city was still receiving large numbers of Chinese tourists, many who came to see the tree referred to in China’s most well-known poem, Xu Zhimo’s ‘Farewell To Cambridge Again.’ 

The city’s university and its various hi-tech and biotech hubs all have close links with companies and institutions in China, many in or close to Wuhan, the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak. Despite this, when the virus was first detected in Britain, there were no cases in Cambridge and even now the number of people found to be infected in the city and surrounding area is less than towns such as Watford and on a par with York. 

The number of Cambridge residents tested positive is far less than in similar sized towns in Italy which have fewer direct links with China. Cambridge has not so much dodged the bullet as stood in the rain for two months without getting wet. 

The analysis and, perhaps more importantly, the testing, which might throw some light on the mystery is either partially incomplete or completely absent.

On the 16th of March Imperial College produced a report on the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand: basically what action can be taken, in the absence of a vaccine, to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed. 

It was based on this report that the Government decided to backtrack on creating herd immunity by letting the virus rip in Britain – a plan which seemed to have been inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove.

To explore the scenarios for the progression of COVID-19 in Britain, Imperial College used a modified transmission simulation model developed to support influenza planning. 

Assumptions as to how the virus is passed on in schools have been used in this model, including how likely it is for someone to pass on the virus if they exhibit no symptoms. 

However, children with COVID-19, unlike children with influenza, all seem to be asymptomatic. The importance of wide-scale testing to come up with a more reliable model has been highlighted by Imperial’s own work in the small Italian town of Vò where blanket testing detected up a number of asymptomatic spreaders.

Returning to the enigma of Cambridge there are many factors which may have suppressed the progression of the COVID-19 in the city. 

Cambridgeshire has a young demographic who tend to communicate with each other electronically rather than face to face, even when in the same room! Visitors from China also tend to fall into this younger demographic cohort.

It could be with such a young native population and youthful visitors the virus never encountered enough of the 14 per cent of the population aged over 65 to gain traction. (It obviously had more success in Italy where 22 per cent of the population is aged 65 and over.) 

Genetic unpicking of the virus may reveal it was not carried directly to Britain from China but instead bounced around Europe; from Munich to Milan and then to London. Basically, we are working with too many of what Donald Rumsfeld described as ‘known unknowns.’ 

The testing in hospitals, while important to protect health workers, tells us little about the virus spreads; the results are prone to distortion, the converse of survivorship bias. Consequently, we are still fighting crocodiles rather than draining the swamp.

Eventually the swamp will need draining because even if peak COVID-19 is delayed, the absence of that herd immunity will see us under attack again; most likely shortly after returning to work and our children are back in school. This will be as true in China as in Britain and the rest of the world. 

When, or if, we reach the stage China is at now we should carry out those large-scale tests because rather than having been beaten the virus will have merely switched into stealth mode; carried only by asymptomatic spreaders.

Once the data on the asymptomatic carriers has been collected it should be analysed with the help of technology companies such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook, who could provide anonymised tracking, friends and family data generated by people within the catchment area of the schools where tests take place. 

AI software should be used to create transmission models robust and accurate enough to allow us, in lieu of a vaccine, to hold COVID-19 in check. Already South Korea is making moves in this direction.

At some point in the future, our smartphones will inform us if we have recently been in contact with someone infected with new strain of coronavirus. We will be asked to use the phone to take our temperature and either a swab our mouth and smear a sample across the biochip on the rear of the handset or, alternatively, breath into the microphone. 

This was how, 15 years ago, we saw the smartphone evolving. At that time the company I worked for produced a report called 101 Uses for a Mobile Phone in Healthcare: disease monitoring was 92 on the list. 

Perhaps inevitably health took a back seat to entertainment and taking selfies with high resolution cameras was more fun than measurement of vital signs with a so-called ‘lab on a chip.’

Technology is partially responsible for the globalisation and universal connectivity that a new generation of diseases exploit. At some point we will need to develop devices and write software that removes this vulnerability rather than resorting to firing cannons at plague ships attempting to dock in San Francisco harbour. 

COVID-19 has transformed our world into a laboratory and is providing test data that will enable this development to take place; best we use both wisely.

A home test for flu designed to give an accurate diagnosis inside 20 minutes could be adapted to identify coronavirus.

The potential breakthrough has been identified by Iceni Diagnostics in Norwich.

Recognition of a sequence of sugars on the cells of its host is essential to the viability of a virus and this mechanism is used by Iceni technology. Sugar recognition overcomes the limitations of existing tests which need laboratory equipment and require knowledge of the viral genetic code. 

Viruses typically invade the body through cells in the respiratory tract. These cells are covered in a coat of sugar chains, known as glycans, which are used to recognise beneficial substances. Viruses can utilise these glycans as part of the infection process. This process can also be used in reverse to identify the virus in saliva or nasal fluids.

Professor Rob Field, a globally renowned expert in glycan science and director of the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, is the co-founder of Iceni Diagnostics; the biotech company is based on Norwich Research Park. The company has developed this diagnostic technique that uses an artificial glycan receptor to capture the virus.

Professor Field said: “Right now, everybody is talking about a vaccine for coronavirus but vaccine development, validation, safety-testing, manufacture, regulatory approval and deployment is a time-consuming process.

“A low-cost, easy to use screening test that can be performed at the point of care is an ideal way to limit initial disease transmission in the country or location of origin.

“Current COVID-19 tests are largely based on PCR (polymerase chain reaction) that requires a laboratory setting for analysis and relies on prior knowledge of the viral genetic code. This code can change as the virus evolves, limiting the effectiveness of the test.

“The Iceni Diagnostics approach uses glycan recognition, which is unaffected by seasonal variation in the genetic code, and can be offered as a handheld home or field-based test.”

Iceni Diagnostics has already developed a series of prototype products that can specifically detect pathogens such as Norovirus and different strains of influenza in less than 20 minutes. The most advanced product, for equine influenza, is performing well in early stage clinical trials.

The hand-held device uses lateral flow – like a home pregnancy test – to give a simple yes/no answer. It requires no refrigeration and no training, meaning the test is usable in any location, by any person, in order to detect flu or other pathogens.

The current Iceni Diagnostics products detect a single virus. However, the next generation of diagnostics will enable the detection and discrimination of a series of pathogens that give rise to similar symptoms. 

This would enable, for example, a distinction between flu and COVID-19 in a single sample. This increases the versatility and robustness of the diagnosis.

Additionally, the way the virus interacts with its glycan receptor makes it seasonally consistent, so, even if the virus genetic code mutates, it will still be detected – meaning the Iceni Diagnostics’ test should remain effective indefinitely.

Professor Field says the device holds huge promise for changing the way we manage global disease: “This new approach, which is based on host-pathogen glycan recognition could potentially result in a more universal detection technique, crucial in early diagnostics of outbreaks.”

Iceni Diagnostics is currently in an investment round to support the validation and roll out the commercial launch of its initial product portfolio. It is also looking at additional funds from EU and BARDA.

In an industry dominated by protein/DNA technology the glycan-based platform offers opportunities for the development of novel medicines and tests. 

• Interested parties are invited to contact Iceni Diagnostics directly at www.icenidiagnostics.com.

A Cambridge University spin-out working towards a vaccine against COVID-19 is seeking critical funding and a Big Pharma partner to help accelerate the breakthrough.

DIOSynVax was set up in 2017 with the support of Cambridge Enterprise, the university’s commercialisation arm. It believes that with the right funding and partner it could have a vaccine ready by June.

Mastermind Professor Jonathan Heeney has won significant funding and investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Innovate UK and Cambridge Enterprise in recent years to develop new vaccines for diseases ranging from influenza to Ebola and other haemorrhagic fevers. It is this technology that he and his team are now applying to the coronavirus.

DIOSynVax’s approach is much faster than current vaccine development technologies, says Professor Heeney, which means that even allowing for essential pre-clinical mouse studies, his vaccine candidate could be ready for human clinical trials as early as June. 

Head of the Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics at the University of Cambridge, Professor Heeney says that coronaviruses present a particular challenge to vaccine developers.

“We need a Big Pharma partner to help us scale up our activities,” he says. “Our vaccine designs are made so that they can be easily integrated into any proprietary vaccine platform that a pharmaceutical company may have ready.”

DIOSynVax uses computer modelling of the virus’s structure, created using information on the COVID-19 virus itself as well as its relatives – SARS, MERS and other coronaviruses – and identifying chinks in its armour; crucial pieces of the exterior spikes that will form part of the vaccine to disable the virus but without making the infection worse.

“A vaccine strategy needs to be laser specific, targeting those domains of the virus’s structure that are absolutely critical for docking with a cell, while avoiding the parts that could make things worse,” he says. “Our technology does just that.”

The approach of the Cambridge UK business is to look at the genetics of these viruses to identify the key piece of genetic code that the virus uses to produce the essential part of its coat – the spikes, that are important for docking with a cell – and to target these elements with the vaccine.

Professor Heeney says: “What we end up with is a mimic, a mirror image of part of the virus, but minus its bad parts, the non-essential parts that could trigger those bad immune responses. What remains is just the magic bullet, essentially, to trigger the right type of immune response.”

Then, using a combination of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, the team create a vaccine that includes this piece of genetic code, which can be injected into an individual. 

The body’s immune cells will then find it, decode it and use the information to program the rest of the immune system to produce antibodies against it.

The next step is to then test the vaccine in pre-clinical trials – in other words, give the vaccine to mice to check that it is safe to use. Mice are an important part of vaccine research: their physiology and immune systems are similar enough to ours to enable researchers to minimise the risk to humans taking part in clinical trials.

Cambridge is one of Europe’s fastest growing European technology cities, with an increase of 33 per cent in VC investment into digital tech companies from £380m in 2018 to £500m in 2019, new figures from Tech Nation reveal.

Cambridge is also one of the leading cities in Europe when it comes to robotics investment and development with £411m in total funding in 2019. 

The search for talent to drive technology capability has driven up the median digital technology salary in Cambridge to £39,000.

In a related development, rare disease drug pioneer Healx and Cambridge neighbour BenevolentAI, which is unlocking the power of scientific data to make more effective drugs, have been named in Tech Nation’s Future Fifty 8.0 programme.

Across the East of England as a whole, the region attracted £800m total VC investment in 2019. Between 2015 and 2019, £998m was invested in emerging tech in the region with £486m pumped into AI ventures. Scale-ups and new unicorns abounded locally over the same period.

There has been widespread praise for both Healx and BenevolentAI which join Tech Nation’s Future Fifty 8.0 programme for late-stage tech companies in the UK. 

This is regarded as Europe’s longest serving and most successful programme for late-stage tech companies, with nine IPOs and 30 mergers and acquisitions in its cohort.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “Cambridge is home to one of the world’s top universities and has a hugely talented workforce so it’s no surprise the East of England has become a thriving technology hub and secured more tech funding than many major European capitals.

“We are determined to create the conditions digital businesses in Cambridge need to succeed. Right across the country we are investing £5 billion in gigabit speed broadband, 5G, cyber security, digital skills, research and development.”

Thea Goodluck, Entrepreneur Engagement manager, East of England for Tech Nation added: “The Tech Nation report 2020 findings show the East of England tech scene is thriving. Close to £1bn has been invested in emerging technologies in the region between 2015 and 2019 and it is exciting to see the three emerging sectors identified in the report as Agritech, Cleantech and Healthtech. 

“Emerging technologies and sectors are visible and growing across the region as a whole, with Cambridge producing incredible AI and healthtech scaleups, Norfolk and Suffolk leading the way on agritech and cleantech, and Essex having a vibrant digital creative and AR/VR presence. 

“Local unicorns such as Darktrace and CMR Surgical are providing high value, highly skilled jobs in the area and I’m delighted to see Healx and BenevolentAI join our Future Fifty 8.0 programme for late-stage tech companies.”

Poppy Gustafsson, CEO for EMEA at Cambridge-based Darktrace, said: “It is fantastic that the UK stands as one of the top three countries investing in AI globally. 

“The lifeblood of brilliant technology companies is access to capital and great talent, and Britain has both of these ingredients. Darktrace is a fantastic example of Great British AI proving itself fundamental in solving one of the society’s greatest challenges.

“Thousands of organisations around the world are using this technology to fight back on their behalf to protect their critical data and systems from crippling cyber-attacks.”

Some of the greatest companies in the Cambridge UK technology pantheon have sidestepped government inaction in a bid to protect staff from the potentially fatal coronavirus.

A powerful cohort of businesses have either banned visitors from their premises or ordered staff to work from home until further notice. Anyone regarded as high risk is being given no choice but to self isolate, Business Weekly understands.

Reliably sourced data supplied to Business Weekly today (Friday) suggests that our best tekkies are leveraging technology to work smart – and safe.
Our bulletin suggests that:-

• Redgate Software has kept its office open but that employees are working from home from Monday for the foreseeable future 
• UltraSoc has temporarily closed its St John’s Innovation Centre offices and all its people are working from home for the foreseeable future
• Napp Pharmaceuticals has reportedly shut its Cambridge Science Park offices to visitors but staff continue working from the HQ. PA Consulting is said to have followed that model
• All Amazon office-based employees locally are reportedly working from home, ditto Arm staff although the superchip architect tells Business Weekly that all its offices remain open.
• Videogames ace Frontier Developments is said to be reinforcing its homeworking technology to allow staff to work from home
• Qualcomm has apparently given all employees the option to work from home but anyone regarded as high risk is not being given the choice
• Roku Europe, based at the Science Park, has reportedly given all its people the option to work from home but there is talk that this will become mandatory next week

One technology cluster source told Business Weekly that the template being deployed in the current crisis might have a lasting legacy.

They said: “Our tech companies have the tools needed to work smart and are not constrained by bricks and mortar. Many tasks can be carried out remotely.

“Better to have staff at home maximising their time and technology than sitting for ages on a congested A14 and other routes. If the coronavirus lasts for weeks or months employers are bound to look at whether the current arrangements represent a more sustainable and cost-effective model for future working practice.”

I once had a work colleague who complained that she got her first wrinkle before she lost her last spot. Or, to put it another way, her prime was over before it began. 

I know how she felt. It fits with the prejudices we all have about age, especially in the advertising world. You go from being unemployable because you have no experience to being put out to grass because you’re set in your ways.

Of course, In the ad industry we’ve made a rod for our own backs by our veneration of all that is ‘new’. We tell our prospects the product you have is ‘so last year’. You need the latest, new improved model etc. – all to generate new sales for our clients. 
 
New media has reinforced this mindset. The death of the press, TV and all forms of traditional advertising has been solemnly announced, and digital proclaimed its invincible successor.

The Media Machine worships at the shrine of youth. Most recently, Auntie has attracted derision for its mutton-dressed-as-lamb programming in desperate pursuit of the youth market, whilst alienating its vastly more numerous mature viewers who actually watch tv. 

Why this blind spot for the old? Especially as the elderly are the most rapidly growing sector of the population, and those between 50 and 65 have, on average, higher incomes and greater purchasing power than the young.

Which is why it’s gratifying to see that not everyone views wrinklies as write-offs. A new London Agency called Ancient & Modern has them firmly in their sights.  And it won’t surprise you to learn that the partners of that agency are all Old Men. 

They’re veterans of the business who, as they say, ‘can still produce advertising in the way it made, with care, craft and (hold on to your hats) an actual creative idea at the centre’.

And that’s no idle boast. Adrian Holmes, John O’Driscoll and Seamus O’Farrell (average age 64) are the bright old things who came up with such commercial classics as the ‘Heineken Refreshes the Parts’, ‘Happiness is a Cigar Called Hamlet’ and BT’s ‘Good to Talk’ campaigns.

And the work they’re turning out now – for Unilever, the London Diabetes Centre and Simplicity Cremations shows they’re far from past it. They might write about the grave, but they haven’t got one foot in it!

If you’re looking for someone with the wit and wisdom of the ages you might also like to look up Simpsons Creative. We’ve been in business for over 35 years and some of us still work a layout pad better than a Mac. 

We also cut our teeth on traditional media, and still have them (teeth that is) for getting to grips with any creative challenge you care to set us!

simpsonscreative.co.uk

Cambridge video games doyen Frontier Developments plc is racing ever closer to unicorn status after clinching a ‘to die for’ deal to publish Formula 1® management games worldwide for the hallowed motorsport championship.

The multi-year game licence with Formula 1® could be worth multimillions – a point that did not escape UK shareholders who filled their boots on the news: At one point after Tuesday’s announcement, the stock soared 186p, almost 17 per cent, to 1306 to haul the market cap past the $667 million mark.

Chief executive David Braben and his team were cock-a-hoop at the company’s Science Park headquarters when the F1 contract was unveiled. Frontier has exclusive rights to develop and publish F1 management games for PC and console platforms – together with the rights for streaming services – with the first launch off the starting grid for the 2022 F1 season. 

Releases will be worldwide and on multiple platforms.

This represents Frontier’s biggest ever game deal when one considers it has a licence for four games for seasons 2022 to 2025 in one of the biggest sports in the world.

Frontier has extensive experience of developing deeply engaging, high-fidelity simulation games which also achieve widespread global adoption. 
The partnership with F1 creates an exciting opportunity to bring together Frontier’s experience and capability, including its powerful and versatile Cobra game engine, to the management-rich environment of the globally popular and ever-changing world of F1.

Following the signing of the F1 Licence and the IP licence previously announced in March 2019, Frontier can now confirm that both of the major new internally developed releases in the financial year ending May 31, 2022 will benefit from major global IP licences.

Frontier has also confirmed the signing of another two Frontier Publishing deals, taking the number of signed deals to five for the company’s third party publishing initiative. 

A number of additional opportunities with carefully selected partners are in discussion and the company expects to start earning revenue in the next financial year.

David Braben said: “F1 is one of the most popular global sporting franchises in the world and we believe the combination of the F1 brand together with our extensive experience in management games will deliver fantastic game experiences to a wide and varied audience around the world.

“We have achieved great success with our own IP and are proven development and publishing partners for the highest profile third party IP. Both original and licensed IP will continue to be important as we grow and nurture our portfolio.”

Formula 1 bosses are equally thrilled. Frank Arthofer, director of Digital and Licensing at Formula 1, said: “Games are an important part of the F1 media ecosystem. This new manager franchise will allow fans to experience the challenging management aspects of the sport through immersive simulation games and make that experience as accessible as possible for a broad audience. 

“We have huge respect for Frontier and their achievements in the management simulation category, and are thrilled to be working with them for the 2022 season and beyond.”

This is a second quickfire deal for a Cambridge company in the world of Formula 1 following Darktrace’s cyber security contract with McLaren Racing, which Business Weekly announced recently.

Marshall Motors in Cambridge believes it has the underlying structure and resilience, plus the financial clout, to clear multiple obstacles in its roadmap to growth.

The automotive retail group posted good results for the year to December 31 which showed a strong outperformance of the market and encouraging strategic growth. Twenty new businesses were hitched to the runaway bandwagon.Marshall also reported record revenue and a fifth year of like-for-like revenue growth since IPO.

The company believes it can put the brake on any perceived threats from falling new car sales, a bad Brexit and the threat to global markets from coronavirus.

Despite market challenges, like-for-like operating profit of £33.1 million was only down 4.1 per cent against last year’s record result though underlying profit before tax was 10.8 per cent down at £22.1m.

Like-for-like total new vehicle unit sales were up 0.3 per cent at a time when  market registrations nationally fell by 2.4 per cent, with both retail and fleet delivering a strong market outperformance.

Used car unit sales were 6.1 per cent ahead while UK market volumes declined 0.1 per cent. Further growth of 3.2 per cent was recorded in aftersales.

Marshall has recommended a final dividend of 5.69p giving a full year payout of 8.54p per share (2018: 8.54p). CEO Daksh Gupta said: “The group continued to perform well in 2019 and despite a sustained period of market decline has grown market share by outperforming in all of its key segments. 

“The group delivered record total reported revenue and achieved like-for-like revenue growth. It has taken advantage of continued market consolidation, completing a number of strategic acquisitions in 2019, adding 20 new businesses. We are particularly proud to have become Volkswagen Group’s largest partner in the UK.

“The board notes the latest forecast by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders for a further decline in the UK new car market in 2020 of 2.6 per cent. It is also cognisant of the potential impact that uncertainty over the outcome of future trade agreement negotiations between the UK and the European Union may have on the automotive sector.

“Although we have not seen an impact to date, the board is monitoring the potential impact of COVID-19 and is considering contingency plans in the event it starts to impact our dealerships.

“The board therefore remains cautious but our order book for the important March plate-change period is encouraging and our outlook for the full year is unchanged.

“The UK motor retail landscape may change over the years and decades ahead. The group’s longstanding strategy of partnering with the right brands in the right locations has positioned it well to remain a relevant and important part of that future landscape.”

Nasdaq quoted Cambridge life science business GW Pharmaceuticals, whose presc-ription medicines are cannabis-based, posted revenue of $109.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2019 and $311.3m for the full year.

Net sales of its flagship Epidiolex® product were $104.5m for the fourth quarter and $296.4m for the first full year of sales.

Chief executive Justin Gover hearalded the trail GW is blazing with Epidiolex in the US and prospects for a much broader reach with the product.

He said: “2019 was an exceptional and transformative year for GW, led by the successful launch of Epidiolex in the US and approval in Europe. 

“The positive impact this medicine has had on thousands of patients and their families provides a compelling foundation for continued growth in 2020. 

“We also expect 2020 to be an important year for our growing and developing product pipeline beyond Epidiolex as we build on our world leadership in cannabinoid science.

“We are focused on advancing nabiximols in the US in several indications and clinical programs with other potential products whilst continuing to bring Epidiolex to more patients in the US and Europe.”

GW plans further significant US commercialisation through 2020 and intends to focus on broadening the prescriber base, expanding payer coverage, entering long term care segment, and launch its Tuberous Sclerosis Complex indication.

A European launch is underway; Germany led the way in Q4 2019 and the company has secured a positive NICE recommendation in the UK with a commercial debut scheduled during this first quarter of the new year. 

Commercial launches in France, Spain and Italy are expected later this year.

On another front, GW Pharma is set to regain exclusive UK commercialisation rights for Sativex® (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)) from Bayer plc.

Sativex, often known by the USAN name nabiximols, is a complex botanical formulation that contains the principal cannabinoids THC and CBD in addition to specific minor cannabinoids and other non-cannabinoid components. 

Nabiximols is indicated in the treatment of spasticity due to multiple sclerosis.

Since it was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in 2010, Bayer has been responsible for the marketing of nabiximols in the UK. Under the terms of the agreement, there will be a transitional period until  December 31 at which point GW will take over all responsibilities for nabiximols in the UK.

In the interim, Bayer and GW will work closely to ensure a seamless transition for healthcare professionals and patients, with marketing transferring to GW during 2020.