Medilink Midlands, a pan-regional strategic alliance between the Medilinks in the East and West Midlands, has recently been established to bring the collective expertise of the two organisations together to preserve the interests of over 1,700 Life Science organisations within the region and stimulate growth to support this vital element of the Midlands economy.
Since their incorporation over 15 years ago, Medilink West and East Midlands have established comprehensive local connections, and through this partnership Medilink Midlands has a combined network of over 8,000 contacts in over 1,700 organisations within the Life Sciences sector, including the NHS, the AHSN network, major universities and a range of multi-nationals and high value start-ups.
Medilink Midlands has been created to further utilise the skills, knowledge and expertise resident within the current organisations and will provide a more strategic focus on influencing Midlands-wide initiatives that affect the Life Sciences industry, such as the Midlands Engine, as well as wider national initiatives such as the Accelerated Access Review. This will be alongside the operational work of the existing regional organisations that includes skills training, business and innovation support, market access support, R&D collaboration and access to business networks.
The launch of Medilink Midlands follows the announcement of the UK’s Industrial Strategy: government’s long-term plan to boost the productivity and earning power of people throughout the country. One of the five core foundations of the strategy is ‘places: prosperous communities across the UK’. Working alongside the Midlands Engine and other strategic alliances, Medilink Midlands’ sole aim is to help stimulate additional and value-added growth of the Midlands as a prosperous community for Life Sciences.
Lord Henley, Business Minister, said:
“Through our Industrial Strategy and the Life Sciences Sector Deal, we are committed to ensuring the UK is at the forefront of this burgeoning field and we will build on the strengths of our established clusters of excellence.
The new alliance formed through Medilink Midlands will play a vital role in delivering this vision in the Midlands, ensuring that the region plays a leading role in the life sciences revolution while bringing together the collective expertise of the NHS, the huge number of life sciences SMEs and universities in the region.”
Dr Darren Clark, Director Medilink Midlands, commented:
“The UK’s medical technology sector is the third largest in Europe and 98% of the sector is made up of SMEs, the largest regional cluster of which is located in the Midlands. ** The Midlands is also home to a wide supply chain serving the Medical Technology, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology sectors. In recent years, Medilink East Midlands and Medilink West Midlands have been increasingly working together, and the formal establishment of Medilink Midlands is a natural extension to continue to help the sector grow on a pan-regional basis.”
You can find out more about Medilink Midlands by visiting the website: www.medilinkmidlands.co.uk
Grant Thornton UK LLP has come on board as a strategic partner of Medilink Midlands. Grant Thornton is one of the world’s largest professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms; to find out more information please visit their website here.
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**HM Government (2016) Strength and Opportunity 2015: The landscape of the medical technology
and biopharmaceutical sectors in the UK, pp. 52 – see here
UK Trade & Investment and Office for Life Sciences (2016), Strength and Opportunity: the data behind the charts, table at MedTech Regional 1 tab – see here