Groundbreaking life sciences collaboration wins innovation award.

A joint venture company between Abingdon Health and the University of Birmingham won ‘The Open Collaboration Award’ at the Lord Stafford Awards ceremony and dinner held in November.

The primary objective of Bioscience Ventures Ltd is to enhance and maximise the value of intellectual property in the field of in vitro diagnostics. The company takes medical diagnosis products, such as devices which provide rapid and cost-effective detection of multiple myeloma, and develops them for the marketplace. Abingdon Health and the University of Birmingham have each invested £1m into Bioscience Ventures Ltd which currently employs 19 people.

The project builds on Birmingham’s growing reputation as a global centre for life sciences and was recognised at the Lord Stafford Awards, which took place on Thursday 15th November. The awards, now in their 15th year, were set up to showcase, celebrate and recognise collaborations between business and academia in developing innovative products, processes or services.

Dr Chris Hand, Chief Executive of Abingdon Health, commented: “We are delighted to receive this award, which recognises Abingdon's approach to commercialising innovation. The University of Birmingham has a first class medical diagnostics science base and we are delighted to be helping to commercialise this science for the benefit of patients and other stakeholders. We believe that ventures like ours are vital to unlocking the potential of the knowledge economy and keeping Britain competitive.”