Abingdon, UK, Friday 26 November: – OBN (UK) Ltd., the membership organisation that supports the life sciences industry, is delighted to announce the winners of the 2021 OBN Awards, presented at the Ashmolean Museum on Thursday 25 November.

The Awards, which are in their 13th 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.

John Harris, CEO of OBN, said: “It was a pleasure to welcome guests to the sell-out 13th OBN Awards. The Ashmolean Museum was a perfect backdrop from which to celebrate the achievements of some of the most inspirational companies and individuals from across the life sciences industry.

 Despite the obvious challenges over recent times for all organisations, nominations remained very strong, and every awards category was heavily subscribed with high quality entries, once again demonstrating the incredible resilience and strength in depth of UK Life Sciences. As always, just being nominated as a finalist was a massive success considering the huge breadth and depth of the 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 2021 Awards are:

Best Start-up Biotech Company, kindly sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific

Winner – SENISCA 

A biotech spinout company from the University of Exeter, founded in 2020 and dedicated to the development of new approaches to reverse cellular senescence.

 

Best Start-up Medtech Company, kindly sponsored by Penningtons Manches Cooper

Winner – Cerca Magnetics 

Has developed and brought to market the first commercial, fully integrated brain imaging device based on optically pumped magnetometers.

 

Best Emerging Biotech Company, kindly sponsored by LifeSci Advisors

Winner – Artios Pharma 

Developing breakthrough cancer treatments that target DNA Damage Response pathways to specifically destroy certain devastating cancers that are difficult to treat.

 

Best Emerging Medtech Company, kindly sponsored by Oxford Science Enterprises

Winner – Ultromics 

A global health technology firm which provides autonomous echocardiography analysis through innovative AI solutions.

 

Most Transformative Digital Healthcare Company, kindly sponsored by Ipsen

Winner – Sensyne Health

Collaborates with life science companies and health systems to create a trusted data community, deriving insights from analysing large, complex data sets of anonymised and de-identified patient data.

 

 The BioSeed ‘One to Watch’ Award, kindly sponsored by Precision for Medicine

Winner – Sonrai Analytics

Has created an AI data discovery platform that enables Biotech, Pharma and CROs to identify high-value drug targets and biomarkers, validate state-of-the-art algorithms and get new products to the market more quickly.

 

Best CRO

Winner – SEDA Pharmaceutical Development Services

Provides integrated Pharmaceutical Development and Clinical Pharmacology services and consultancy to the Pharma and Biotechnology Industry.

 

Most Impactful Business Support Organisation        

Winner – The Milner Therapeutics Institute 

Encompasses both a research institute and a global outreach programme, which aims to transform pioneering science into therapies.

 

Most Impactful UK Deal, kindly sponsored by GenScript

Winner – Oxford Biomedica

Played a key role in the manufacturing of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine which saw the production of the vaccine achieved at unprecedented scale and pace.

 

Best Established Medtech Company, kindly sponsored by Milton Park

Winner – Isansys 

A world leading digital healthcare company which has developed a comprehensive, scalable and simple-to-use advanced patient monitoring platform – the Patient Status Engine.

 

Best Established Biotech Company, kindly sponsored by Precision Biosearch

Winner – Crescendo Biologics 

A clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, with a first-in-class lead programme and a pipeline of additional T cell enhancing therapeutics.

 

Special Recognition, kindly sponsored by Oxford Biomedica

Clive Dix, CEO of C4X Discovery, Chairman of Centauri Therapeutics, and Non-Executive Director of the Medicines Discovery Catapult and until April 2021, Interim Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce.

In recognition of his extensive achievements within the UK biotechnology industry and with many biotechs over more than 30 years.