New £4.5m Norgine warehouse boosts Wales’ life sciences sector

The new £4.5m Norgine warehouse in Hengoed has officially opened, providing another major boost to the life sciences sector in Wales.

Norgine, one of Welsh Government’s anchor companies will now expand production and strengthen the long-term future of the site.  The largest pharmaceutical employer in Wales, employing 328 full-time staff, works closely with the Welsh Government to help drive economic growth and create jobs in the life sciences sector in Wales.  Read more.

Magstim creates 50 jobs as it targets major US markets A Carmarthenshire-based company is increasing its workforce to 150 with Welsh Government support. The Magstim Company, supported by an overall £2.7 million Welsh Government package, is set to create nearly 50 new jobs at its Whitland base over three years. The business, which has an international reputation for manufacturing sophisticated medical devices for brain investigation and therapy, will construct a 13,912 sq ft extension to their existing facility in Whitland and create 50 new jobs – increasing Magstim’s 100 strong workforce by 50%.  Read more.

Second Essentra investment creates 70 jobs Leading global specialist packaging company, Essentra plc, is again expanding its operations in Newport and creating seventy new jobs. This latest investment, backed by £143,000 business finance from the Welsh Government, will see the company more than double staff numbers as it takes over an adjacent 225,000 sq. ft. site on Imperial Park, Newport.  Read more.

Prism Medical UK expansion creates 50 jobs A £363,000 Welsh Government funding support package has secured the long term future of Prism Medical UK. They are now set to expand operations in Rhyl and Bridgend, creating fifty new jobs and safeguarding a further 135 jobs.  Read more.

TrakCel Ltd to create 20 new jobs in Cardiff Biotech Pioneer TrakCel Ltd.’s expansion will create 20 jobs and see the commercial roll-out of its sophisticated tracking system used in cell therapy and regenerative medicine clinical trials. The Welsh Government funding follows the successful evaluation of TrakCel’s software platform by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which along with other leaders in the cell therapy industry, has now adopted the technology. The expansion has been supported by £125,000 business finance to help upscale its operation as it moves from R&D to commercialisation.  Read more.

Cardiff named as ‘Centre of Excellence’ First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, has welcomed Cardiff being named as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in a network of hubs to develop precision medicine across the UK. It is one of six centres named in the £50m Precision Medicine Catapult project funded by Innovate UK, the UK Government's innovation agency. Led by a consortium headed by the Welsh Government, NHS Wales and Cardiff University, the Centre will work on local and national programmes, building expert teams across the region.  Read more.

Welsh expertise showcased at Medica A Welsh Government trade mission took 80 delegates to Dusseldorf to attend the world’s leading medical trade fair. Medica which showcases a range of innovative award winning products and services, is one of the top global events for the life sciences sector in Wales. Forty two companies attended - the largest number to date - with nineteen exhibiting and twenty three visiting.  Read more.

New cancer drugs to be available in Wales through new deal A new deal with pharmaceutical company Novartis will give patients in Wales access to new cancer drugs which are not currently routinely available in Wales.  Read more.

Health check for innovative businesses SMARTInnovation is offering three days worth of free consultancy to businesses for design and manufacturing advice. This support is part of the new package of SMART support backed by EU funds. Find out how your business can be assisted.

World cancer expert and Lord Winston to speak at BioWales 2016 World cancer expert Professor Gordon McVie; Senior Consultant at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan has been added to the conference programme for BioWales 2016. The flagship event for the life sciences sector in Wales. is returning to the Wales Millennium Centre on 1-2 March 2016 with a theme of Connect and Collaborate, Find out more.

Contracts worth £50m for enhanced Business Wales service

The Welsh Government’s flagship Business Wales service is set to expand, with the aim of creating 10,000 new businesses, 28,300 new jobs and providing support to help inspire the next generation of young entrepreneurs over the next five years. It is also looking to increase the volume of goods and services exported from Wales, which will add an additional £215million to the Welsh Economy.  Read more.

New £39m fund to bolster Wales’ world-class scientific research capacity

More than sixty science research fellowships will benefit from a new £39m fund to expand Wales’ world-class scientific research capacity, Economy Minister Edwina Hart has announced whilst launching the second phase of Sêr Cymru II at Swansea University.

The first phase was launched in September 2015 after £17m Welsh Government and European funding enabled 90 new research fellows from across Europe to work with stellar researchers in Wales.  Read more.

Apitope to relocate to Wales with Wales Life Sciences Fund support

A drug company that specialises in developing treatments for autoimmune diseases and whose current UK headquarters are in Bristol, is to relocate to Wales after receiving a multi-million pound investment from the Wales Life Sciences Fund.  Read more.

KTPs driving innovation and supporting business growth in Wales

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) which enable companies to access academic skills and expertise to address strategic business challenges are playing a key role in driving innovation in Wales.

This is the message that Economy Minister Edwina Hart delivered when she addressed WelshKTP@40 – an event marking 40 years of the programme in Wales.  Read more.

£2m boost for Welsh SMEs to develop tailor made solutions for public sector challenges

Welsh innovators are being offered a share of funding through a new Dragons Den-style competition to encourage strategic solutions to some of the trickiest challenges facing the public sector in Wales today.

The new Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Innovation Accelerator programme – which is backed by over £2m from the Welsh Government - will launch a series of competitions next year in collaboration with InnovateUK when SMEs can bid for R&D funding to develop technology-driven solutions for specific challenges facing the public sector.   Read more.

Welsh ICE secures £250,000 investment

The Welsh Innovation Centre for Enterprise (ICE) in Caerphilly has secured a £250,000 investment to help support start-up businesses in Wales.

The funding, provided by the Fairwood Trust, Welsh Government, Lloyds Bank and the WCR Group, is designed to give start-up businesses a structured route to sustainability, create jobs and boost the Welsh economy.  Read more.

Companies showcase winning technologies

Companies shortlisted as part of the Innovate UK Medical Technologies Launchpad were given the opportunity to showcase their technologies to potential future investors, mentors, collaborators and customers at the recent Venturefest Wales.  This marked the end of a 6 month programme of wrap around business support provided by Welsh Government, designed to help participants grow their business and access follow on investment.

Hear how they have benefited from business advice and guidance and how they are helping to develop the MedTech cluster in South Wales.

Agile Nation 2 – supporting women in Life Science

Announced by Chwarae Teg, Agile Nation 2 is a new programme to help support women developing their careers and aimed at aspiring female managers who have the drive and commitment to take their career forward and women who may have already taken that first step into managing a team.  The programme is available to women working in the Life Sciences sector and can be tailored to suit the types of challenges first time managers may face that are unique to this sector.  Find out more.

MRC to lead first Dementia Research Unit and wins Queen’s Anniversary Prize

The Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that the first national Dementia Research Institute (DRI) in the UK is to be led by Cardiff University’s MRC.  The DRI, which will bring together world leading expertise in discovery science in the fight against dementia, is set to receive up to £150m in funding and be fully functional by 2020.

The MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics has also been awarded a 2015 Queen's Anniversary Prize for world-class excellence in research.  Awarded every two years by the Queen it recognises an academic or vocational institution, and falls within the UK’s national honours system.

Time for Medicine wins place at UKs largest innovation show

Based at Cardiff’s Medicentre, Time for Medicine beat tough competition from across the country to win a place to showcase its products at the UK’s largest multi-sector innovation event held in November.  The company was one of 100 to be selected to showcase its innovation to over 3,000 attendees at Innovate 2015 in London.  Read more.

Number of businesses in Wales grows by 11% since 2011

Economy Minister Edwina Hart is urging budding entrepreneurs to consult Business Wales to help turn their business ambitions into reality - as latest figures reveal the number of business enterprises operating in Wales has grown by more than 10% under the current Welsh Government.

At the start of recent Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Minister welcomed latest figures indicating that since 2011 there has been an 11% increase in the number of enterprises doing business in Wales.  Read more. 

Life Sciences Hub Wales launches Boost Cymru competition

The Hub is launching an exciting new annual business competition with the pilot being launched in December.  Boost Cymru will stimulate, showcase and support fast growth and high growth Life Sciences ideas in Wales, making the connection between ideas and commercialisation a reality.

The competition begins with an online Expression of Interest. Entrants must be Wales based and have a relevant Life Sciences idea that must be clearly presented in a three minute video pitch. Subsequent rounds will have different criteria at each stage of judging, including intellectual property, routes to market, and financial profiling amongst others. For the winner there is a significant prize fund made up of cash and in-kind professional support, and along the way all successful entrants will have access to facilitated development workshops, as well as experienced business coaching and mentoring support.   Find out more.

Innovate UK healthcare competition calls:

India–UK collaborative industrial research and development competition: Clean-tech, affordable healthcare and ICT- The aim of the competition is to bring together companies (small to medium-sized companies and/or larger businesses), research organisations, academics and other collaborators from India and the UK for the joint research and development of new solutions to key socio-economic challenges, in the form of innovative products, processes or services.

China–UK research and innovation bridges competition -  Innovate UK, the Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) for the People's Republic of China are to invest up to £16 million in collaborative research and development projects that propose new commercial solutions to critical challenges impacting the socio-economic growth and development of China in relation to energy, healthcare, urbanisation and agri-food. Find out more.

Cancer Research UK’s Grand Challenge - £20M progress awards

Grand Challenge awards are the most ambitious cancer research grants in the world with up to £20M available in support.  Applications are currently being sought from interdisciplinary teams with novel, exciting ways of solving one of seven Grand Challenges, which together encompass some of the most important unanswered questions in cancer research.   Find out more.

Small Business Rates Relief extended for year with £98million

The Welsh Government’s Small Business Rates Relief Scheme will be extended for another year, Economy Minister Edwina Hart has announced.

The £98million scheme, which benefits over three quarters of business premises in Wales, means around half of all eligible businesses will pay no business rates again next financial year.  Read more.

Life Sciences Hub Wales Events

Life Sciences Hub Wales, based in Cardiff Bay, is the focal point for the sector in Wales – stimulating interaction, innovation, networking and collaboration.

Find out more about a number of events being held in the sector by Life Sciences Hub Wales.

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