Accelerating innovation: Medtech in the Midlands
Melanie Davidson, interim chief executive of life sciences industry organisation Medilink Midlands, explains why the Midlands' ecosystem is uniquely placed to enable medtech to flourish.
The Midlands sits at the very heart of the UK’s medtech and life sciences sectors. With around 1,200 companies in the industry, the region has the largest number of medtech businesses in the UK and is the second largest employer, supporting over 32,000 highly skilled life science jobs.
As the second largest cluster of medical technology service and supply companies in the country, the Midlands is ideally aligned to support the development, manufacture, and implementation of technologies that support innovative approaches in healthcare. In many ways, this is thanks to the Academic, Business and Clinical (ABC) ecosystem, and the region’s broad and stable diverse population. It is large enough to have a vast range of businesses, institutions, NHS Trusts, and universities, but small enough for people to know one another and forge strong relationships.
The region also has the highest number of young adults in the UK, and they come from a varied and diverse ethnic and cultural range of backgrounds, giving not only a youthful perspective and enthusiasm, but also a diverse set of ideas, which are imperative if you want something new or ground-breaking to disrupt the mould of traditional approaches. This young population is also stable, which is of great benefit to those looking to conduct clinical testing and studies.
Owing to the high number of universities and colleges, the Midlands has an enormous pool of individuals studying digital and healthcare data degrees, representing a potential future workforce. This fertile ground has led to several exciting developments from the region, including projects looking at the use of AI in medical applications; new approaches to diagnostics - from digital to chemical - and the exploration of remote care and digitising clinical trials, to alleviate care and health staff shortages and to ensure a greater diversity of patients.
Innovation in action
Our annual Medilink Midlands Business Awards, sponsored by the University of Birmingham and the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator, took place in March at the Great Hall within the University of Birmingham and displayed the diverse range of pioneering life science and medtech businesses in the Midlands.
Bioxhale won the One to Watch award in the West Midlands. For this category, our independent judging panel were invited to nominate businesses that show great growth potential. Bioxhale’s mission is to make breath-testing accessible for everyone, everywhere, at any time, by providing breath sampling devices, high quality measurements and analysis services. The company sees breath tests as the future of diagnostics and wellness monitoring, with the potential for earlier disease detection, better treatment outcomes, and enhanced survival rates.
Also recognised as a ‘One to Watch’ in the East Midlands region was InoCardia, a contract research start-up providing cardiotoxicity assessment services to pharma and biotech customers. With cardiotoxicity being the second largest cause of pharma R&D failure, InoCardia has built a set of uniquely predictive cardiotoxicity assays to support the testing requirements of pharma and biotech companies. It is the only provider in the world that offers predictive cardiotoxicity assessment through design, hit, lead, candidate nomination and regulatory stages of pharma research and development.
We are delighted to highlight the next generation of innovative medtech organisations that are not only seeking to solve some of the nation’s most significant health and care challenges but are also making a proven contribution to the thriving Midlands economy.
Specialist support to accelerate growth
It is clear the Midlands offers outstanding opportunities for businesses in the life sciences sector. For nearly two decades, Medilink Midlands has been providing specialist business support to stimulate the growth of this sector by helping life sciences and medical technology companies in the Midlands to establish, develop, and overcome barriers to growth.
With our skills, knowledge, expertise, network, and connections, we have the resources to deliver relevant support that creates opportunities and networks. We offer members a gateway for essential connectivity to the academic, business, and clinical communities, helping to navigate the increasingly complex health innovation landscape and spearhead new collaborative partnerships.
Since 2019, Medilink Midlands has helped secure almost £80 million in funding for the region’s life sciences sector, created £47 of investment for every £1 of public money, and engaged with 1,700 of the sector’s SMEs and has been instrumental in forty-seven university collaborations and 34 traineeships for life sciences businesses.
Amongst our recent successes is our bid with Nottingham City Council to be part of the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Medilink Midlands received £271,872 from the UK government through the fund to deliver business growth support to the medtech and health tech industries across the city of Nottingham.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and is to provide £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, people, and skills.
Medilink Midlands project will focus on the delivery of business and innovation support to companies already in, or transitioning into, the life science and medtech sector within Nottingham City, to ensure Nottingham continues to be recognised globally as a city for pioneering medtech and healthtech innovation.
We are looking forward to supporting more companies in the city to increase their competitive advantage and facilitate collaborations with industry suppliers and partners, academic research, the NHS, local government, and other sector stakeholders.
Visit Medilink Midlands as part of the Medilink UK team on Stand B60 at Med-Tech Innovation Expo on 7-8 June. Register for FREE at www.med-techexpo.com.