On Thursday 28 November 2019, DLA Piper was delighted to be sponsoring the "Export of the Year Award" at the Annual BioNow Awards. We are a proud member of BioNow which provides specialist business development and services to the Life Science sector in the North of England. In its 18th year, the awards celebrate the innovation, success and variety of the Health and Life Sciences sector across the North of England.

Applications for the Export of the Year award were invited from and on behalf of organisations who (over the last 12 months) have been trading their products, services and expertise overseas. The judging panel (which included DLA Piper’s Catherine Scott), were looking for those organisations who:

• used “innovative approaches to develop biomedical services, equipment or products particularly those which serve the needs of human healthcare”
• showed creativity and innovation that has led to success and overcoming barriers
• could clearly demonstrate export successes and have a significant proportion of their sales in international markets
• had the ability to demonstrate a strategy employed over a period time and can demonstrate pioneering activities that have led to growth in sales.

In particular, the panel looked at organisations who could demonstrate tangible results across their export sales.

The panel were, unsurprisingly given the strength of this area across the North of England, impressed with the variety of nominations. However, Quay Pharma was a worthy winner and DLA Piper would like to congratulate them on a brilliant 2019!

UK Government figures demonstrate the strength of UK exports in bio-medicine. As an example, the combined value of exports from the UK in pharmaceutical and medical technology products was over USD37 billion in 2017, and it is an area, as the leading global business law firm, that DLA Piper is proud to be involved in.

With over 90 offices in 40 countries, if you are looking to do business, DLA Piper would love to assist. If there is a query you need answering or would like to explore a topic with our Life Sciences sector colleagues, please do get in touch.