The West Midlands Region


Medical & Healthcare Technologies

The West Midlands is fast becoming a focal point for specialised medical technology companies and has become the location of choice for many world-renowned companies in this field, such as Kimal, Sunrise Medical, Microtek, Salts Healthcare, Sterilox and Warwick Sasco.

Attracted by the range of raw materials, impressed by a spirit of inventiveness, world leading companies from across the sector have chosen the West Midlands as a base for their principal operations. Supported by the knowledge that fourteen research departments, within the region's leading universities, have attained '5' or '5 star' excellence ratings. That there is a unique integration of academia, research bodies and NHS Trusts taking place in the West Midlands. Add our excellent manufacturing heritage and its clear this is a sector with a bright future.

The sector employs some 16,000 people in over 700 firms. Many of whom benefit from the West Midlands NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub being the largest in the country, with a spend of c£3.5 billion per annum.

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Sector Strengths

  • Medical Devices - With a solid history of developing quality products in the automotive, aerospace and jewellery industries, West Midlands based companies have applied these same techniques and product traceability standards to components for the medical devices and healthcare industries. Regional companies are manufacturing products that are being used as benchmarks for quality standards throughout the world.
  • Clinical Trials - The population of the West Midlands is unique. With over 5.3 million people in the region, the potential for high quality clinical trials delivery is unsurpassed in the UK. The population includes significant social, economic and ethnic diversity from both rural and urban communities and enables access to a range of traditionally hard-to-reach groups and demographic sub-groupings essential for FDA approvals for new therapies. Wellcome Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at the University of Birmingham, is the most successful of the UK's five CRFs.

Business Support

Public and private sector organisations are investing significantly into the medical and healthcare sector within the West Midlands. The region is seeing a boom in purpose-built facilities for laboratories and research work, and in the development of dedicated technology and manufacturing corridors.

  • Keele University Science Park is a dedicated 15 acre site located within Keele University campus, KUSP provides specially designed hi-spec accommodation for innovative medical technology start-up or spin-out companies. The facilities also offer premier manufacturing space for incoming medical technology companies relocated from the UK and overseas.
  • Medilink WM - Medilink West Midlands is a membership organisation, proactively providing commercial opportunities for its members in the medical, healthcare and support industries. Providing research and market analysis services to private sector members and by undertaking contracts on behalf of National, Regional and Local Government.

Sector Research & Development

  • QinetiQ - seeks new applications for technologies developed by the Ministry of Defence. Providing a range of services to medical and healthcare companies including laboratory diagnostics, medical imaging, patient monitoring, drug and device trials, drug discovery and biomaterials for orthopaedics. In addition, Qinetiq hosts one of the few hyperbaric oxygen therapy units which has recently been utilised in the development of new technologies to promote increase wound healing.
  • RAPRA (Rubber and Plastics Research Association) is a leading international consultancy organisation which provides access to design, testing, regulatory issues, failure diagnosis and consultancy and have a particular expertise in the applications of polymers in the healthcare sector.
  • Institute of Medical Law - a ground breaking collaboration of the University of Birmingham's two schools of medicine and law, The Institute of Medical Law houses 16 teaching hospitals, the Institute for Cancer Research; the Institute for Biomedical Research; and the Centre for Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy.
  • Academy of Life Sciences - Aston University's Academy of Life Sciences is an £8 million development opened in 2004 and is a unique facility for biomedical research specialising in cornea and refractive surgery, brain imaging and paediatric cochlear implantation and rehabilitation.
  • The Rapid Prototyping and Tooling Centre (RP & T Centre) - Rapid tooling methods, pioneered at the RP&T Centre, Warwick University, enable both prototype and production tooling to be manufactured more quickly and cheaply.
  • Motion Analysis Research & Rehabilitation Centre (MARRC) - The Motion Analysis Research and Rehabilitation Centre (MARRC) is a biomechanical analysis laboratory that offers full movement and force analysis. Equipped with state of the art motion capture and force analysis technology, MARRC is capable of analysing almost any movement, human, animal or mechanical.
  • The new Clinical Sciences Research Centre, at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, has excellent resources including micro-array technology, proteomics, ion-trap mass spectrometry, confocal and fluorescence microscopy, laser capture dissection microscopy and fluorescence activated cell sorting.
  • The Electron Microscopy Suite is a state-of-the-art facility within the University of Warwick's Department of Biological Sciences which houses four electron microscopes, of which two are new cryo-electron microscopes (Cryo-EM). The Cryo-EM facility can provide highly detailed structural analysis without the need for crystallisation or damaging stains.
  • Human Science Laboratory at the University of Staffordshire provides access to a range of laboratory equipment fully supported by technical and research staff. Services include a clinical biochemistry laboratory, electroencephalographic laboratory, pain laboratory and cardiovascular laboratory.

If you'd like to speak to a sector specialist about the West Midlands Region as a potential location for your business, call the Inward Investment Team at Advantage West Midlands on +44 (0) 121 380 3500 or email info@investwm.org

To request a copy of the latest West Midlands business brochure, email marketing@advantagewm.co.uk

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