Manchester delegation to highlight city's medtech potential to US
A delegation from Manchester is heading to the US to showcase the city’s strength in the life sciences sector.
The Health Innovation Manchester delegation will attend The MedTech Conference in San Jose to highlight the potential partnerships that exist thanks to the investment of £6 billion into the city’s health and social care devolution. The delegation will also visit the Bay Area in California and the Greater Boston Area in Massachusetts to see America’s leading health innovation economies.
Manchester’s devolution deal enables the city to develop integrated decision-making structures and a partnership of academic and clinical benefits giving life science companies access to the largest integrated NHS cluster in the UK.
Greater Manchester is now looking at ways to establish R&D collaborations and work with global businesses.
The team of investment officials, academics, health leaders and businesses, will discuss Manchester’s strengths in medtech, digital health, precision medicine and Greater Manchester’s excellence in research and health informatics. The delegation will seek international partners to help the future healthcare needs of Greater Manchester. Manchester will be presented as an ideal location for life science companies wanting to test and fast-track adoption of treatments, services and products.
Richard Leese, leader, Manchester City Council, said: “Greater Manchester is steeped in a history and reputation for innovation. From the industrial revolution to computer science and the recent isolation of graphene, the North of England has always had a pioneering spirit.
“With the strength of our world-class universities in medical research, and having the UK’s first integrated health and social care system, Greater Manchester is a highly-attractive business destination for US companies. As the best city to live in the UK, our city region is a great place to study, work and invest.”
Tim Newns, chief executive of MIDAS, Manchester’s inward investment agency, said: “Greater Manchester has created a globally unique partnership, which joins up both the planning and delivery of services within a citizen-centric health and social care system covering a diverse Metropolitan population of 3m people. This partnership will deliver unrivalled access for US life sciences and healthcare companies to a large-scale, real-world test bed for innovation, covering the full spectrum of health and social care, which is underpinned by a proven world-leading digital health platform.
“US businesses looking to seize this opportunity will be joining an existing cluster of over 260 biomedical companies in Greater Manchester, whose universities produce over 13,000 life science graduates a year adding to an existing workforce of more than 157,000 health and social care workers overall.”