Medical advances offer major investment opportunities
UNIVERSITIES in the West Midlands are working in partnership with businesses to lead a revolution in the development of the drug discovery industry.
The strategy is leading to groundbreaking opportunities for new investment, science entrepreneurs have said.
The advances in the field will be discussed at a major conference in Birmingham today, attended by 90 academic and business leaders from across the region.
The Science Capital’s Innovative Healthcare event will showcase investment propositions and build on successes in translating medical research into clinical practice.
The plans being presented range from smart robots for the inner ear of the profoundly deaf being designed at University Hospitals Birmingham to therapeutic boots for healing foot ulcers from The Diabetic Boot Company.
Other developments under the spotlight include tiny chips only nanometers across which are in use by the National Physical Laboratory to detect tuberculosis and a range of other diseases.
Elsewhere, practical solutions which could offer immediate benefits to patients include remote monitoring systems for children and the elderly being developed at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, McLaren Electronics and MDTi.
Birmingham-based medtech The Binding Site is leading the pack. It is developing diagnostic tests for millions of cancer and immunocompromised patients each year.
The firm, subject of a multi-million private equity takeover earlier this year, is set to announce plans to further expand its global reach.
Science Capital said the city’s commitment to providing the best in patient care was exemplified by the Leukaemia Centre at University Hospitals Birmingham. The centre has attracted £12m of new drugs from pharmaceutical companies, created 100 jobs and launched a national clinical trials network. Discussions are now underway with the Greater Birmingham Local Enterprise Partnership to provide a similarly high level of care for a much wider range of conditions.
Demand for the latest healthcare technology is increasing largely due to an aging population and increasingly competitive market. Medtech businesses of all sizes are now ramping up production to capitalise on new opportunities.
Handheld scanners that see cancers lurking beneath the skin are being developed by Michelson Diagnostics, while Smethwick-based Chemex International has developed new processes designed to tackle the spread of superbugs in NHS Trusts.
Sean Derrig, scientific director at the firm, said was expected to lead to growing demand from hospitals and other medical centres for the environmentally friendly and inexpensive technology.
Michael Overduin, chief executive of Science Capital, said the time was right for investors to look at this increasingly important sector for potential growth opportunities.
“This is potentially our region’s fastest growing sector, with thousands of research teams and companies looking to meet global demand for new therapeutic and diagnostic systems to improve how we detect and treat medical conditions,” he said.
