Rutherford Health was a private

oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

provider founded by Mike Moran and

Karol Sikora Karol Sikora (born 17 June 1948) is a British physician specialising in oncology, who has been described as a leading world authority on cancer. He was a founder and medical director of Rutherford Health, a company that provided proton therapy ...

in 2015, with investment from

Neil Woodford Neil Russell Woodford CBE (born 2 March 1960) is a British former fund manager and the founding partner of Woodford Investment Management and the author of Woodford Views. Early life Woodford was brought up in Berkshire and attended Maidenhead ...

and the Wales Life Sciences Investment Fund, to develop

proton therapy In medicine, proton therapy, or proton radiotherapy, is a type of particle therapy that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often to treat cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam ...

facilities in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Until 2019 it was known as Proton Partners International. It went into liquidation in June 2022. According to major shareholder Schroders UK Public Private Trust, the company had pursued a "flawed expansion strategy ... from 2015 to 2019" leading to "a high and unsustainable cash burn".

Proton therapy

Rutherford Health ran proton therapy centres in

Newport, Wales Newport ( ) is a city and Principal areas of Wales, county borough in Wales, situated on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, northeast of Cardiff. The population grew considerably between the 2011 and the 2021 Unit ...

, Bedlington, Northumberland,

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England, and the county town of Berkshire. It is the United Kingdom's largest town, with a combined population of 355,596. Most of Reading built-up area, its built-up area lies within the Borough ...

. Equipment and services were provided by

Ion Beam Applications IBA (Ion Beam Applications SA) is a medical technology company based in Louvain-la-Neuve. The company was founded in 1986 by Yves Jongen within the Cyclotron Research Center of the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) and became a university spin- ...

, Philips and Elekta. The Newport site was the first to open with construction starting in 2016. The Reading site cost £30 million and work began in December 2016, before opening in October 2018. The Bedlington site was opened in 2018. Funding included £10 million from the Wales Life Sciences Investmunt Fund in 2016, as well as continued investment of over £100 million through fund manager Neil Woodford. The

Wales Audit Office Audit Wales (), formerly the Wales Audit Office (WAO, ), is an independent public body which was established by the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; , formerly the National Assembly for Wales) on 1 April 2005. It has overall responsibility for auditing ...

criticised handling of the Wales Life Sciences Investment Fund due to Woodford being the company's main shareholder. Proton Partners secured £30 million from

Shawbrook Bank Shawbrook Bank Limited is a retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom. It is an operating entity of Shawbrook Group plc which was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by a consortium led by BC Partners and Pollen Stre ...

in January 2016 which it later repaid in full in 2019. The Northumberland site benefited from a grant of £450,000 from the Let’s Grow regional growth fund programme. In November 2016 Proton Partners purchased the Gulf International Cancer Centre in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

as part of plans to create the first proton beam therapy treatment centre in the United Arab Emirates. Work began in 2019. In March 2017, the company announced the development of its fourth UK centre to be built by

Interserve Interserve was a British construction and support services business based in Reading, Berkshire, which went into administration in 2019 and was formally wound up in 2022. In 2019 the group generated revenue of £2.2 billion and had a workforce ...

on the Knowledge Quarter site in

The centre was completed in 2020 and is now fully operational. In 2018 it was announced that work had started on a headquarters for their Rutherford Diagnostics subsidiary. The building was to serve as a research centre, sited next to their Liverpool cancer treatment centre.

Other activities

Proton Partners International incorporated five companies in total, including Rutherford Estates, Rutherford Innovations and Rutherford Diagnostics. In July 2020, the Company launched a membership scheme, "Rutherford Direct" aimed at providing a "cancer only plan" to companies and individuals as an insurance in case of a cancer diagnosis. In June 2020, Rutherford Health partnered with Panthera Biopartners to set up a network of

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

sites. Under the name "Panthera@theRutherford", clinical oncology trials were to be undertaken at Rutherford sites, utilising Panthera's "clinical trial management experience". In September 2021

Michael Richards Michael Anthony Richards (born July 24, 1949) is an American actor and former stand-up comedian. He achieved global recognition for starring as Cosmo Kramer on the NBC television sitcom ''Seinfeld'' from 1989 to 1998. He began his career as a ...

opened the first

community diagnostic centre Community diagnostic centres were introduced into the English NHS in 2021 as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in England. The intention was to make tests more easily available, reduce visits to hospitals and reduce patient travel. ...

in England, on the outskirts of

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

, to be operated by Rutherford Health in partnership with

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust Somerset NHS Foundation Trust is a NHS foundation trust providing services for National Health Service (England), NHS England in Somerset, England. It manages a number of hospitals providing Psychiatric hospital, mental, Community hospital, commu ...

. The trust was to pay a "tariff price" for the service and was reimbursed for the use of its staff.

References

{{reflist 2015 establishments in the United Kingdom 2022 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Health care companies established in 2015 Companies disestablished in 2022 Companies of Wales Health care companies of the United Kingdom Health care companies disestablished in 2022

Proton therapy

Other activities

See also

References