Our region is already home to over 10,000 industry specialists and over 530 healthcare technology businesses, including world-leaders Smith & Nephew, Johnson & Johnson and Swann-Morton and is growing faster than the UK average. We have a fully developed supply chain, three medical schools, the largest teaching hospital in Europe and exceptional access to clinical trials. It’s no wonder then, that UK based companies are making waves around the world with cutting-edge innovation in areas such as urology, neck surgery, orthopaedics and telehealthcare.
We have a world leading reputation for advanced engineering and metals manufacturing making Yorkshire and Humber a prime centre for orthopaedic implants, surgical instruments and medical equipment production. In fact, over 50% of Europe’s forged and cast implants are manufactured in the South Yorkshire, while West Yorkshire see a major centre for orthopaedic research.
The UK is also a key influencer of European healthcare regulation and products approved in the UK have access to the whole European market. We’re home to the UK’s largest ports complex and your products can be delivered into mainland Europe, including the largest two European device markets of France and Germany in hours. By locating here you’ll join major surgical instrumentation businesses, inclduing Swann Morton, Downs Surgical and Systagenix.
Changing demographics and the increase in aesthetic surgery have also increased the need for advanced woundcare solutions. Yorkshire & Humber is home to major centres of excellence in underpinning technologies like the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering centre, the Kroto Research Institute and the Centre for Stem Cell Biology. You would also be close to the Wound Healing Institute in Bradford and the Wound Care Institute in Hull, both world leading centres for the investigation and trials of chronic wounds. It’s little wonder then that a quarter of the global woundcare market’s operation comes from our region.
Telehealthcare
The UK’s National Health Service is facing increased financial pressures due to growing demands for its services and funding shortfalls, which open up significant opportunities for remote monitoring and treatment. Our strengths in the medical device sector alongside our exceptional digital and broadband infrastructure all make Yorkshire & Humber a prime centre of telehealthcare solutions. We’re home to Tunstall, the world’s market leader in the provision of telecare and one of Europes’s largest heart failure telemonitoring services is based here too. Our region is also playing a leading role in the EU funded project, HeartCycle, which is one of the largest biomedical and healthcare research projects in Europe.
Biotechnology and regenerative medicine
In the East to our region, around the Humber estuary you’ll find one of the UK’s largest clusters of chemical companies and alongside leaders in biotechnology. Major players such as the minerals manufacturer Seven Seas (Merck) along with Croda, Reckitt Benkiser and Unilever, who supply speciality chemicals for formulated products, are based here.
Plans are currently underway to establish a Renewable Oils Institute (ROI) which will comprise of a Germplast Development Centre, a Biorefinery and Demonstration site and a Renewable Oils Network, which will give you the opportunity to extract, separate and ‘work-up’ speciality chemicals and oils from biorenewable resources. The ROI will be a key supporter for the increasing demand for green and natural ingredients.
Regenerative medicine is also widely seen as one of the next major sources of innovation in healthcare. This sub-sector is currently under represented in the UK, which would give any regenerative medicine company the perfect opportunity to draw upon the wealth and clinical expertise in our region, as Smith & Nephew have shown.
The academic and clinical expertise in the region has been further enhanced by the recent funding of the Innovation & Knowledge Centre in Regenerative Medicine at the University of Leeds, while the Centre for Stem Cell Biology (CSCB) in Sheffield provides the focus developing clinical applications of stem cells in regenerative medicine.
Another huge advantage for locating your company here is that the European Medicines Agency is also based in the UK. This means that any drug or treatment developed in our region can be sold across Europe.
Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals
The region has a history of excellence in pharmaceutical manufacturing and global players Reckitt Benckiser, Novartis and Colep CCL all have facilities here. With the recent increases in global endemics and epidemics such as Swine Flu and Bird Flu along with the rise of degenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, the opportunities for novel drug development, biotechnology and contract manufacturing, linked to the strong presence of our chemicals industry, have never been greater.
The UK’s strength in this area is universally acknowledged and currently almost half of all the new biotechnology drugs in late-stage clinical trials in Europe, are from UK based companies. Private sector Contract Research Organisations (CRO) such as Covance, Parexel International, Medvance and Mediqol all have facilities in Yorkshire and Humber.
Yorkshire and Humber is now experiencing a growth in the number of companies linked to the functional foods and natural products sector. Seven Seas, Croda Speciality Chemicals and Essential Nutrition Ltd are all capable of supporting this Nutraceutical emerging market. The increase in those diagnosed with diabetes, along with the UK and Europe’s ever growing obsession with supplements and diet medications provide significant opportunities for our region’s companies to capitalise on.
Oncology
With one of the UK’s highest concentration of cancer research organisations, including Europe’s largest cancer treatment centre built at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, Yorkshire and Humber is also recognised as one of the most significant centres for oncology in the world. The £220m facility at St James’s has over 1500 staff and is revolutionising cancer care, by supporting the pooling of medical resources along with a concentration of high tech specialist equipment.
There are more than 293,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed each year in the UK and our region is leading the way in research including clinical trials, psychosocial oncology, cancer medicine, biological and immunotherapy work, genetic research and screening. You would also benefit from the experience of the multidisciplinary teams of researchers based at the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics in Bradford.