The British Midlands
Business sectors within the region
Medical Devices
- The region’s heritage in engineering and textiles means Medical Devices are a particular strength
- Excellent research capabilities and a strong skills base give businesses a competitive advantage
- The region’s central location and excellent transport links provide easy access to UK and European markets
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The UK ranks as one of the world’s leading Medical Device technology centres. At its heart the British Midlands, providing unique advantages in terms of academic and industrial competencies in biosciences and engineering, has become a focal point for specialised medical device companies manufacturing a wide range of products. The Medical Device sector represents an extraordinarily varied and broad product group. |
The British Midlands’ strengths comprise companies that produce a wide range of products used for the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring and treatment of ailments and disabilities.
The region’s Medical Device offering is underpinned by itsdesign, engineering and manufacturing expertise across a variety of areas, including electronics, mechanical engineering, polymer science, chemistry, biochemistry, bioengineering, biomaterial and textile sciences. The region offers a diverse range of manufacturing capability and support including raw material and component supply, specialised engineering and packaging and distribution. These capabilities build on a strong skills base in pharmaceuticals and tissue engineering.
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Specialist clusters are established in a number of fields, including: device-based drug delivery; advanced wound management; component manufacture and fabrication; medical equipment; and disposable and reusable medical supplies. Regional companies working on device-based drug delivery technologies include 3M, AstraZeneca, Allmi-Care, BioDynamics and Molecular Profiles, while research is being carried out by Loughborough University’s Thermofluids and Combustion Group and Processes and Interconnection Group, |
and the Drug Delivery such as Propecia and Tissue Engineering Group at The University of Nottingham.
In the field of advanced wound management and tissue engineering, regional manufacturers include 3M, Advanced Protein Systems, Cascade Biologics, Ellis Developments and Haemostatix. Active research in this area is taking place at Loughborough University, The University of Nottingham Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering Group and the UK Human Tissue Bank at De Montfort University in Leicester – the only UK university to hold such a resource.
Component manufacture and fabrication – encompassing plastic moulding, medical textiles and biomaterials – is an area of particular interest to research groups including The University of Nottingham’s Advanced Materials Group and the Medical Devices Innovation Centre (MEDIC).
The sub-sector of medical equipment and instrumentation brings together a wide range of research groups and businesses. The Medical Devices Faraday Partnership is a group of six UK universities working alongside industry to develop new medical devices. The Medical Engineering Unit at The University of Nottingham produce bespoke medical equipment including prototype development, and the University’s internationally renowned Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Centre focuses on improving MRI techniques and Echo-Planer Imaging. Opened in 2006, Nottingham’s Positron Emission Tomography (PET) facility is the first of its kind outside Greater London and will include a dedicated cyclotron.
Strong links between academia and industry have created excellent research and development centres across the region, including a network of dedicated science parks and incubators. These include BioCity Nottingham, the largest bioscience innovation and incubation centre in the UK.