Your career trajectory doesn’t have to define you. In fact, where your passions lie can really push you to where you want to be, and what you gain along the way.
Whilst a degree in Manufacturing Engineering & Product Design informs his thinking, Gareth’s 25+ years in various commercial sales roles within the pharmaceutical packaging industry underpins his perspective on market need and drives the vision behind DuoVIAL®. Investing time alongside production lines, fascinated by the rhythmic manufacturing processes, it was systematically rejected components which created that Eureka! moment.
“I'm an engineer at heart. So, I would watch these pieces of glass rejected as scrap... [I was] nosey enough to spend time behind the scenes, not being coerced by other people, rather reflecting for myself.”
With a well-established career, an idea fermenting and mid-life knocking on the door, Gareth took a leap of faith, thanks, in part, to having the “wrong boss at the right time”, and jumped out of the corporate rat race to launch his own business and start to develop the innovative laser technologies underpinning DuoVIAL®. For Gareth, it was the exciting early R&D around his idea that helped to give him the push he needed; “I always say there's a kind of naive optimism as a startup. It's very much, you believe in your idea. You might not be right, but you can't sit on the fence.”
Identifying The Need for Safety and Simplicity
For Gareth, the “Holy Grail” for DuoVIAL® is vaccines.
With their familiar shipping, storage and stability challenges, as well as the sharps injury risks inherent to healthcare professionals, through complex reconstitution process steps, Gareth has produced an innovative solution. This means stakeholders, especially those in developing countries can mitigate and overcome these problems.
“DuoVIAL is a dual-chamber pharmaceutical packaging system for vaccines.”
He explains, “it's essentially a glass tube that contains the powder in the head, the liquid in the body and incorporates a glass membrane to separate, keeping the powder dry and the liquid wet! It's always a cartridge refill-based system. The single-use container is loaded into the applicator. The process is easy. Simply pierce the foil, screw the cap on, which activates the product, and you can then mix the product. Remove the cap and apply.”
“What I'm bringing to the market is sustainable glass packaging format, with a lower carbon footprint because you're shipping less. It’s a more compact system. You're removing costs all the way through the supply chain. So, all the stakeholders - from the pharmaceutical company to the end user or patient - benefits. That's my future. It's all about making a global health impact for me.”
Innovation Doesn’t Exist in a Vacuum
After making the decision to take the plunge and start his own business, Gareth found himself back in the corporate world he had initially wanted to leave behind. “I had a
shared office hot desk in a converted barn in Surrey, but that’s a different crowd - professionals, accountants, bankers, shipping brokers – and it was dull.”
Searching for more stimulation, Gareth returned to the homeplace of Plus X Innovation in Hayes (known then as Central Research Laboratory) where he had worked briefly before and remained there for several years before moving with the team to the new Plus X Innovation in Slough in November 2023. “It's always positive coming here,” he says, “[The team are] always smiling, they're always giving."
It has been the discovery of community that has helped Gareth along his founder journey - something that can be somewhat of an isolating experience. “It's those water cooler tea breaks where everyone’s struggling in a similar way, whether that's raising finance, whether it's technical, whether it's dealing with HMRC, or even R&D tax rebates.”
The rich mix of founders, innovators and makers of all ages, experiences, and sectors that spaces like these provide, enables these people to make use of the diversity of knowledge-sharing around them, and helps them to improve and innovate their products and services more meaningfully.
As Gareth puts it, “It’s the people and the community that really binds us together.”
DuoVIAL® is truly starting to find its market fit and traction, highlighting the beauty of innovation transcending borders and barriers, to benefit healthcare globally.
To keep updated on what’s next for DuoVIAL®, follow Gareth on LinkedIn, or check out Pacifi’s DuoVIAL website here.
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