At her Majesty’s service — a brief roundup of some of the year’s Queen’s Award recipients
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are prestigious awards given to companies for outstanding achievements in four categories. Here we briefly run through some of this year’s winners in the fields of innovation and international trade.
INNOVATION
Continuous printing
Domino Printing Sciences has been acknowledged by the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for it’s a-Series i-Tech range of industrial continuous ink jet printers.
This range of printers have been designed to offer high-performance coding, low consumption of organic solvents, reduced service interventions and a range of ink formulations that comply with European and global food packaging guidelines.
“We are honoured and proud to have been selected for a Queen’s Award for Innovation,” commented Nigel Bond, CEO of Domino Printing Sciences. “It is a fitting tribute to our skilled and talented team who have worked on the A-Series and i-Tech ink system, which is providing so popular with customers across the world.”
Bridging the gap
Co-development of a resistance bridge for the use in establishing and disseminating the International Temperature Scale (ITS-90) has seen Isothermal Technology (IsoTech) be awarded with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the field of innovation.
Called the microK, this product is now in use in the National Meterology Institutes (NMIs) worldwide, alongside primary standards,
John Tavener, founder and managing director said: “Isotech is delighted to have achieved such international success, I recognised that the existing instruments used old technology and relied on obsolete components; cooperating with Metrosol we developed this new device, with better performance and lower cost than the older designs.”
Assessing mutagenicity
Lhasa, an educational charity that creates in silico prediction and database systems for use in metabolism, toxicology and related sciences, has received the award for innovation for Sarah Nexus, a statistical-based software that predicts mutagenicity.
“These awards are approved by Her Majesty The Queen and are the UK’s highest accolade for business success and innovation and we are naturally thrilled to have received this honour and recognition of our work for the second year running,” said Dr Chris Barber, CEO of Lhasa. “Sarah Nexus […] provides fast and accurate predictions of mutagenicity in an inexpensive way, identifying potentially toxic chemicals and therefore helping pharmaceutical companies in bringing drugs to market more quickly.”
This is the second Queen’s Award for Lhasa, which received one for innovation last year for Derek Nexus. “I’m proud of the valuable work we do here and the software we bring to market — something which has been reflected with two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise,” Barber concluded.
The X factor!
Mettler Toledo’s X-series of food and pharmaceutical X-ray systems have been recognised by the Queen’s Award of Enterprise for Innovation.
The Safeline X-ray offers manufacturers the ability to perform quality control functions as well as containment detection, such as fill level inspection, mass measurement and component counts.
“We are delighted to have been honoured with this award,” said Anthony Darraugh, product engineering head at Mettler Toledo Safeline X-ray. “It is great recognition for all of the team at Safeline X-ray, who have been instrumental in creating and launching the highly successful X-Series product line up.”
To the point
Owen Mumford’s developments in injection pen needles, specifically the Unifine Pentips Plus, have been acknowledged by receipt of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the field of innovation.
The all-in-one pen needle from the company is an integrated device with two chambers, one containing the new pen needle and the other providing a removal chamber for interim disposal. This development allows users to fit a new needle with ease and responsibly dispose of the old one.
“Through our work, we seek to improve quality of life and encourage adherence to treatment and reduce healthcare costs,” commented Jarl Severn, managing director at Owen Mumford.
Controlling temperature
In recognition of its innovation in the temperature controlled packaging sector serving the pharmaceutical industry, Peli BioThermal has been recognised by the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
The award specifically recognises the development of the company’s Chronos Advance, a range of single-use shippers that use advanced insulation and phase change material for temperature stability.
“This is a momentus occasion for the entire company, including the highly skilled engineers involved in the design of our Chronos Advance system, which successfully set new standards within the temperature controlled packaging industry,” said David Williams, president of Peli BioThermal.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Global success
Global service contract research organisation (CRO), Clintec, has been awarded for international trade in the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for the second time in recognition of its efforts to accelerate drug development globally.
“We are honoured to have received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise again as we celebrate 20 years of global success in clinical research,” said Dr Rabinder Buttar, founder and CEO of Clintec. “The people of Clintec are very excited and energised to grow the business further and continue to deliver excellent clinical research solutions to our clients, several of whom have partnered with us for many years.”
Assessing safety
Specialist in molecular pathology for biopharmaceutical research and development, Propath, has received the award for international trade in recognition of its contribution to the UK’s life sciences sector.
“Propath has invested consistently over many years to support the growth of its molecular pathology research services for drug development. This award not only reflects our success in becoming the UK’s centre of excellence for tissue cross-reactivity (TCR) studies, but also one of the few centres across Europe able to perform studies of this type,” said Dr Krish Soni, chief executive of Propath.
Integrating expertise in drug discovery
Sygnature Discovery has been recognised with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in international trade for its work in providing integrated drug discovery expertise.
“Fundamentally, I believe that drug discovery research really matters,” explained Dr Simon Hirst, a medicinal chemist, founder and CEO of Sygnature Discovery. “It matters because there are so many untreatable or poorly treated diseases around. It matters because the chances are, one day, we will all be patients, needing care treatment. Pharmaceutical research can deliver life changing medicines but it is a long-term goal and successes are rare and hard won.”
Continuous growth
Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group has won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in international trade, for recognition of the company’s continuous growth in overseas sales over the judging period.
“We have clearly demonstrated to the judging panel the success of our strategic decision to move our trading base into international trade. In fact, this part of our business now accounts for 76.7% of total turnover,” said Jay Whalen, president of Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group. “Through powerful combination of organic growth, and a series of strategic acquisitions — including the Hampshire-based Bio Pure Technology business — we have grown our international presence while maintaining a strong profile with the UK. Our strategy to offer our global customers a single source of complete fluid path technologies is clearly working.”