OBN Awards 2020 – Winners Recognised at the Life Sciences Industry’s First In-Person Event of 2021

OBN Awards 2020 – Winners Recognised at the Life Sciences Industry’s First In-Person Event of 2021

 

Abingdon, UK, Monday 14 June: – OBN (UK) Ltd., the membership organisation that supports the life sciences industry, is delighted to announce the winners of the 2020 OBN Awards, presented at the postponed evening in London on Friday 11 June.

 

The Awards, which are in their 12^th year, shine a light on companies at all stages of development, recognising inspirational leadership, exciting innovation, novel and exciting approaches to unmet clinical need, outstanding company progression and the delivery of real-life tangible results.  The OBN Awards celebrate fresh and innovative deals and collaborations, as well as the critical role that support organisations play in helping the life sciences industry thrive.

 

John Harris, CEO of OBN, said: “It was a massive pleasure to finally be able to welcome all our guests in person to the 12th OBN Awards and seeing everyone interacting and having such a fabulous time was truly satisfying. The prestigious surroundings of the Royal Lancaster Hotel were a perfect backdrop for celebrating the success of some of the most inspirational companies and individuals from across the life sciences industry.

 

The huge number of entries we received once again emphasised the sheer scale, quality, and resilience of our life sciences sector, which continues to thrive despite the recent challenging circumstances. The OBN Awards continues to go from strength-to-strength and congratulations to all our finalists and winners who shone through against intense competition.

 

Sincere thanks to our panel of independent judges who really had their work cut out, and our many sponsors whose strong support was crucial to maintaining the OBN Awards as the sector-leading event that it has always been.”

 

The winners of the OBN 2020 Awards are:

 

Best Start-up Biotech Company, Kindly sponsored by Penningtons Manches Cooper

Winner - Alchemab Therapeutics

Discover and develop novel therapeutics for patients with hard-to-treat diseases by harnessing the power of naturally occurring protective antibodies.

 

Best Emerging Biotech Company, Kindly sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific            

Winner - Evox Therapeutics

Engineering exosomes to deliver protein and nucleic acid-based therapeutics to treat life-threatening rare diseases.

 

Best Start-up Medtech Company, Kindly presented by Akesios Associates             

Winner - Cirqle Biomedical

Produce a rapidly dissolving innovative contraceptive.

 

Best Emerging Medtech Company, Kindly sponsored by Milton Park       

Winner - Owlstone Medical

Developers of the Breath Biopsy platform, using breath analysis for precision medicine and the early detection of disease.

 

Most Transformative Digital Healthcare Company, Kindly presented by AggioSergeant  

Winner - Dignio

Produce software for health care professionals which integrates a wide variety of devices that support home-based care and treatment.

 

Best Business Support Organisation, Kindly presented by Taylor Wessing

Winner - Bruntwood SciTech - Alderley Park

Own, let and manage outstanding buildings, workspace, innovation and science facilities through Bruntwood SciTech and Bruntwood Works.

 

Best COVID-19 Responder – Winners

 

Medicines Discovery Catapult

Co-ordinating the establishment of a network of high capacity and high throughput laboratories (Lighthouse Laboratories) dedicated to COVID-19 PCR testing.

 

Oxford Biomedica

One of the lead manufacturers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca chimp adenovirus vector based COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222.

 

The Native Antigen Company

One of the world’s first recognised commercial suppliers of SARS-CoV-2 antigens.

 

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Working with government agencies and researchers to ensure priority access to instruments, consumables, safety supplies and other products to address the pandemic.

 

The BioSeed ‘One to Watch’ Award, Kindly sponsored by BMG Labtech

Winner - Kinomica 

Offer a suite of advanced proprietary bioinformatics and phosphoproteomics analytical methods that can provide direct activity measurements of multiple endogenous kinases and comprehensive coverage of cell signaling networks.

 

Best CRO

Winner - Domainex

Apply its unique technologies and focused discovery approach to provide a diverse range of client services and to the development of its own pipeline of oncology drugs, including inhibitors of the kinases IKKε/TBK1 and a number of epigenetics-related lysine methyltransferases.

 

The Most Impactful Deal, Kindly sponsored by Ipsen

Winner - F2G

For their US $60.8 million equity financing led by new investor, Cowen Healthcare Investments.

 

Best Established Medtech Company, Kindly presented by Focus

Winner - Oxford Nanopore Technologies 

Developing a new generation of nanopore-based systems for analysis of single molecules, including DNA, RNA and proteins.

 

Best Established Biotech Company – Oncology, Kindly sponsored by Syneos Health

Winner - Adaptimmune

Focusing on the development of novel cancer immunotherapy products. The company’s unique SPEAR (Specific Peptide Enhanced Affinity Receptor) T-cell platform enables the engineering of T-cells to target and destroy cancer across multiple solid tumors.

 

Best Established Biotech Company, kindly sponsored by Precision for Medicine

Winner - Exscientia 

Automates drug discovery and design processes leveraging artificial intelligence and big data.

 

Special Recognition Award

Winner – Kate Bingham

In recognition of her impact on the life sciences industry through her role as Managing Partner at SV Health Investors, Board Member of the Francis Crick Institute and as Head of the UK Vaccine Taskforce during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.