Queen's Awards recognise pharma sector companies
Several companies from the UK pharmaceutical sector have been awarded a Queen's Award for Enterprise.
In the international trade category an award went to Dishman Europe, the European distributor of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) produced by its parent company in India. Set up in 1997, Dishman Europe's main purpose is to sell European-style products and services at the lower prices associated with India. The company has seen a 5-fold increase in export earnings over three years.
In addition to Dishman Europe's award, the parent company - Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals - has had a successful and oversubscribed IPO of a 25% shareholding on the Mumbai stock market. In April the company's Bavla manufacturing site near Ahmedabad was awarded both ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 by the BVQI of Switzerland.
Laminar Medica, the Tring-based manufacturer of validated insulated shipping systems for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, is a second-time winner. Over the three-year application period the company increased its overseas sales by 93%, with exports accounting for 61% of total sales in year three.
Nicobrand, a subsidiary of US-based Watson Pharmaceuticals, manufactures the API for antismoking therapies. Over the three years of the application its overseas earnings more than quadrupled to £12m, with exports accounting for around 96% of turnover. The company's main markets are the US, Switzerland and France.
A Queen's Award for Innovation goes to the Speciality Gases Group of Air Products, which produces gases used as 'carriers' in modern analytical chemistry techniques such as gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
Traditionally, a gas purifier has been placed between the gas cylinder and the instrument itself. This causes problems due to the ingress of impurities such as water vapour and oxygen when the cylinder is changed. The Speciality Gases Group has overcome this problem by fitting gas purifiers in the cylinders themselves, along with an innovative valve arrangement. The new system has significantly decreased the lower detection limits.
Other winners are pharma and healthcare management consultancy Total Healthcare Solutions; Wassen International, a manufacturer of nutritional supplements in tablet form; and Supply Point Systems, a company that has adapted the concept of snack vending machines to dispense pharmaceutical products.