Life Sciences Dinner 2010

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GlobalScot and Life Sciences entrepreneur, Jim Reid, has won the award for Outstanding Contribution to the Growth of Life Sciences in Scotland at the Scottish Enterprise Life Sciences Annual Dinner 2010. The award was presented at the Scottish Enterprise annual dinner in Edinburgh on Thursday 4^th February in front of more than 750 representatives from the life sciences community in Scotland and worldwide.

The award is presented to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the industry in Scotland through achievements which have enhanced Scotland's growing reputation as a global leader in the commercialisation of life sciences technology.

Jim Reid, from Perthshire, developed his early career in blue-chip organisations in many parts of the world including Organon, Chiron and Hoffman la Roche, starting at the research bench and progressing to business management. He has since utilised his knowledge, experience and connections to contribute at many levels to the life sciences industry in Scotland and has been instrumental in the formation and development of more than ten companies in the sector.

Jim is now expanding his work with early stage Life Science companies, particularly through support and investment from his own company, ChimaeraBio, with the vision of creating sustainable life sciences businesses in Scotland.

Jim commented: "Having worked in the industry for almost 35 years it is a real honour to receive this prestigious award from my peers. Scotland has a world class Life Science industry and I am focused on ensuring that this position continues and that the country benefits fully from the quality science we have."

The ceremony also saw awards given in the below categories:

Best new life science company in Scotland

Innovation Award

Life Sciences Business Leadership (2009)

Scottish Health Innovations Ltd award for best innovation originating within NHS Scotland

Roslin based biotech company, Big DNA, was named the Best New Life Sciences Company in Scotland at the dinner. The accolade was awarded to the spin out company for its work in designing and developing new and innovative vaccines.

The company has gone from strength to strength since being established in 2006, raising significant public and private sector investment. To date, the company has developed a number of therapeutic and prophylactic vaccine candidates to target a number of human and veterinary diseases.

Renfrewshire-based Vascutek, a Terumo Company, scooped the prestigious award for Innovation. The company, which specialises in designing and manufacturing products to treat cardiovascular disease, received the award for its new BioValsalva^TM Heart Valve Conduit.

The Innovation Award recognises the most innovative life sciences company in Scotland that has created an innovative technology, product or service which has led to commercial success.

BioValsalva^TM is the world's first medical device combining a biological heart valve and a sealed vascular graft. The device is intended to be used to treat patients who have aortic valve disease with an aortic aneurism. These groups of patients if untreated are at risk of severe, and often fatal, heart problems.

Dundee-based life sciences company, Axis-Shield, won the award for best Business Leadership. The company received the award which recognises business leaders and management teams that have significantly advanced a Scottish life sciences company in the previous year.

The award was picked up by GlobalScot Ian Gilham, chief executive of Axis-Shield, who commented: "We are very pleased to have our achievements at Axis-Shield recognised by winning such a prestigious award. Since the inception of Shield Diagnostics as a spin-out from the University of Dundee in the early 1980's we have gone from strength to strength and we are now producing substantial sustainable revenues and profits and are quoted on the London and Oslo Stock Exchanges. Our Dundee Headquarters remain a cornerstone of our profitability and we expect to continue to grow our laboratory diagnostics sales from this important site for our global business."

Finally, Keith Colver and David Fitzpatrick from the Scottish Ambulance Service won the prestigious Scottish Health Innovations Ltd (SHIL) Award for best innovation originating from NHS Scotland. They worked in conjunction with SHIL and Lightweight Medical to produce an innovative solution to restraining critically ill children in ambulances. The Ambulance Child Restraint^® (ACR) is the only paediatric restraint capable of fitting all children less than 45 kg which is fully crash tested to CEN compliance levels.