The region has strengths across biotech R&D, health data, clinical trials expertise, biomarker diagnostic development, and regulation and policy.

Much of this medtech and biotech startup activity is being led by the University of Birmingham and its co-located NHS Trusts. Along with the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus (BHIC), the University has established its own flagship research facility.

That initial idea has become The Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA) - a business innovation facility that will soon occupy approximately 70,000 square feet of state-of-the-art incubation and collaboration space. 

PHTA brings entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-ups together with the next generation of academic and clinical leaders, creating unique opportunities to commercialise ideas and accelerate the rapid development of cutting-edge therapies and technologies.

The result will be innovative new diagnostic tools, health technologies and medical devices which can reach patients faster, improving the lives of people in the city of Birmingham and far beyond.

A year from its grand opening, PHTA has already won business from several fascinating organisations such as the biotechnology companies Kiffik Biomedical and Gifford Bioscience.

Gifford’s MD, Macer Gifford, commented: “Being part of the life sciences ecosystem here is a real competitive advantage for us, and having the opportunity to expand to a brand new facility which is part of that same collaborative community is exactly what we need.”

Health Data and AI

Further, the Birmingham and West Midlands region is a health data and AI powerhouse. Utilising the close relationship between academic/clinical excellence and the region’s ethnically diverse population, they deliver the unparalleled opportunity to reduce development time and trial costs to innovate faster. 

This is demonstrated through the hosted infrastructure, including:

• the UK’s only Centre for Patient Reported Outcomes
• two Alan Turing Institute sites
• four NHS England Global Digital Exemplars
• one of the world’s largest ARM-based supercomputer deployments
• the UK’s largest IBM Power9 AI cluster
• the Midlands Health Data Research UK
• 3 Digital Innovation hubs
• some of the UK’s foremost diagnostic and experimental medicine capabilities (e.g. the UK’s largest NHS genetics service and Genomic Medicine Centre)

All are supporting the largest cluster of medtech companies in the UK.

Richard Wheeler Associates has expertise in recruitment for medtech, biotech and health tech companies. Find out more about our MedTech Recruitment service or browse our latest jobs.