Seven companies scoop prizes at Medilink East Midlands Business Awards

Seven life science companies from the East Midlands were selected as winners at the Medilink East Midlands Business Awards.

The awards recognise organisations in the life science sector who in the past year have excelled in different areas, including Start-up, Export, Delivering Innovation into Health and Care, Innovation and Outstanding Achievement. This year’s awards also saw two new awards included – One to Watch and Deal of the Year.

The first winning company to be announced was NuVision Biotherapies, who received the One to Watch Award. NuVision Biotherapies is a start-up regenerative medicine company established to deliver wound care biotherapies to treat front of the eye disease and ocular trauma. 

Andy Hopkinson, CEO of NuVision Biotherapies, said: “We feel honoured to have won the One to Watch award, in recognition of the talent, hard work and commitment of the entire team at NuVision. Together we have developed a life changing treatment and we are continually looking to grow further and bring our innovation to patients.”

Clinical trial management software company Pharmaseal won the Start-up award. This award was given for newly established companies in the healthcare sector that show a promising future. Pharmaseal is developing software for the management of clinical trials.

Daljit Cheema, founder & CEO of Pharmaseal, said: “We’ve had a really exciting beginning and Medilink has been a valuable source of support to us. We’re delighted to have won the Start-up award and will continue to deliver our innovative approach to clinical trial management.”

Contract research organisation XenoGesis won the Export Achievement award. XenoGesis is a laboratory-based contract research organisation (CRO) specialised in preclinical drug metabolism & pharmacokinetics (DMPK).

Richard Weaver, CEO at XenoGesis, said: “We are pleased to have won the Export Achievement award in acknowledgment of the hard work of the XenoGesis team. Exports are a massive part of our business and together we have developed a world-class service offering and are continually re-investing our profits into company development and infrastructure.”

The Award for Delivering Innovation into Health and Care, was awarded to the Spirit Health Group and which looked at innovations that are being adopted by the NHS.

Nadine Miles, director of market development for the Spirit Health Group, said: “We are thrilled to have won the Award for Delivering Innovation into Health and Care in recognition of the commitment of the team at Spirit. Together we have developed life changing innovations and we are continually looking at the best ways to grow further and bring our ‘make health easy’ approach to patients and the NHS.’

Surepulse Medical picked up the award for innovation. This award was given for the development of innovative technology, that has produced a major improvement in business performance and impacted the market. SurePulse develops medical technologies to solve real monitoring problems faced by clinicians to provide the best care for newborn babies.

James Carpenter, CEO of SurePulse Medical, said: “We feel privileged to have won the Innovation Award in appreciation of the effort of the whole team here at SurePulse. Together we have developed life changing, innovative technology that has the potential to improve the life-chances for millions of newborn babies across the world"

The Deal of the Year award, recognises entrepreneurship of an individual or team. Quotient Sciences won this award in recognition of their securing of a new private equity partner Permira.

Mark Egerton, CEO of Quotient Sciences, said: “I am thoroughly pleased to have won the Deal of the Year Award. Together with my team, we managed to secure our deal with Permira and use their knowledge, experience and capital to grow further than would have otherwise been possible.”

The Outstanding Achievement award recognises an achievement which has had a significant or vital impact on the company and market and was awarded to Sygnature Discovery. Sygnature is an integrated drug discovery and pre-clinical services company with a global client base including major pharmaceutical and top biotech companies.

Dr Paul Clewlow, senior vice-president, business development, at Sygnature Discovery, said: “We are very pleased and privileged to have won the Outstanding Achievement Award. Our aim is to deliver drug candidates and to enable pharmaceutical customers to succeed in developing new treatments ultimately to benefit patients with serious diseases. This award is a great recognition of our track record as well the ability, diligence and dedication of Sygnature Discovery and the science we do.”

The winners of the Start Up, Export, Delivering Innovation into Health and Care, Innovation and Outstanding Achievement awards will go on to be shortlisted for a Medilink UK Healthcare Business Awards, with the chance to be crowned national winners. Next year’s ceremony is set to take place on 1 April 2020 at the NEC in Birmingham.

Dr Darren Clark, chief executive, Medilink East Midlands, said: “It’s great to see so many exciting life science industry developments coming out of the East Midlands. All our winning companies have demonstrated a high level of expertise and are extremely worthy winners. I’d like to thank the awards sponsors who continue to show their support to Medilink EM and the companies we work with.”