Nevrargenics.
2024/5 | Public Relations
Client
Nevrargenics is a UK biotech spinout focused on the development of innovative and novel medicines for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including dementia and MND. Their unique, dual-action approach utilises retinoic acid receptor modulators (RAR-M), a significant innovation with a large market potential.
Neurodegenerative diseases have been notoriously difficult to treat, partly due to their complexity. This meant differentiating Nevrargenics, positioning the executive team as experts and articulating the commercial approach the business was taking was key.
Challenge
Early-stage biotech companies regularly struggle to secure investment, with many venture capitalists perceiving biotech to be too risky prior to human data being available. These barriers meant a public relations campaign needed to simultaneously build momentum, demonstrate credibility and differentiate the IP.
We needed to position the business an attractive investment proposition by demonstrating commercial maturity and highlighting the expertise of their world class leadership team.
Solution
We specialise in working with early-stage life science businesses and have a track record of helping them raise their investor profile, so understood Nevrargenics’ challenges well. This enabled us to provide tailored counsel to the team on everything from pitch decks to digital media alongside the core campaign.
Achieving success required a bespoke, three-strand approach to winning media attention: positioning Nevrargenics alongside industry leaders to de-risk their proposition; placing regular comment and thought leadership to demonstrate company expertise; and sequencing stories to build momentum.
We advised the Nevrargenics team on how to effectively target key audiences and refined their messaging to align with the evolving media agenda. This enabled us to identify and exploit reactive opportunities to position the company alongside major industry players like Astra Zeneca and showcase commercial sophistication by securing expert comment coverage on everything from the Lecanemab approval to the Chancellor’s Budget implications for life science businesses.
The quality and speed of our support enabled us to secure national radio and television coverage and sought after features and op-ed columns in the top biotech publications. This included thought leadership on the use of neurofilament light (NfL) analysis as a biomarker technique; the need for risk-taking in neurodegeneration; and the efficacy of animal models in drug development.
An important part of the investor campaign involved targeting HNWIs, so we integrated national coverage into our delivery. We responded to existing stories like Sky News’ story on Bruce Willis’ dementia diagnosis within minutes and secured additional coverage across top tier media outlets, reaching millions of readers and significantly enhancing their digital footprint.
We set also set the media agenda with new stories, using individual stories to secure national coverage across the BBC for the company’s work on Motor Neurone Disease, including on BBC Radio Scotland’s flagship discussion programme, where Prof Whiting discussed Elloraraxine’s potential.
This campaign played a critical role in helping the company secure funding, which was essential to its success and proceeding to human trials in 2025.
Professor Andy Whiting FRSC
CEO, Nevrargenics
