Life Sciences Hub Wales: Bringing Welsh

Bringing Welsh industry together to respond to Covid-19

Across Wales, businesses have been adapting and innovating at an unprecedented scale and pace to combat the spread of Covid-19 and help treat those affected by the virus.

Welsh businesses have understood the real need to think differently, operate differently and deliver differently to meet immediate needs - repurposing their operations and resources to manufacture urgently needed items. Collaborations between industry and NHS Wales have been crucial to making these success stories possible and ensuring much needed resources get where they need to be.

Life Sciences Hub Wales has a legacy of supporting collaborations and innovation between industry, academia and health and social care, and has been appointed by Welsh Government to manage all industry enquiries to support NHS Wales during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Working with NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership and the National Procurement Service, Life Sciences Hub Wales is processing all initial proposals and undertaking due diligence on behalf of the NHS before they were referred on to procurement services. This has supported health and social care buyers to manage and triage the high volume of supply offers being received, allowing them to focus their attention on the most appropriate offers of support.

Over the last few months, Life Sciences Hub Wales has processed thousands of enquiries from businesses, successfully securing much needed products and resources for the NHS supply chain including personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitiser, medical devices and testing kits.

This support has helped Caerphilly company Transcend Packaging, which manufactures paper straws for quick serve restaurants such as McDonald’s, to become certified to produce PPE during Covid-19. Transcend, a sustainable packaging specialist, has converted operations at its manufacturing base to create millions of protective face shields that are being supplied throughout the UK and across the globe.

Made from reinforced paper boards and recyclable materials, the visors are designed for single use and can be recycled. As well as being suitable for frontline services, the recyclable nature of the shields plus their relative low cost and ease to produce mean that they could play a key role in supporting the return back to work and the ‘new normal’, providing individuals with an extra layer of protection in social situations.

Transcend’s switch in production was made possible after the company contacted Life Sciences Hub Wales for assistance to better understand the certification requirements its products would need to meet to allow them to be offered to the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership. The organisation worked closely with Transcend to help it adapt its production line and ensure its face shields met all requirements, including the crucial CE certification. This then allowed them to gather the additional information needed to refer Transcend to NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership.

As a result, over 3 million of the shields have already been manufactured by Transcend, with over 1.5 million going directly into the Welsh NHS supply chain and the remainder being supplied to councils, care homes, retailers and factories. The company has also received orders for the visors all over the globe and is now in talks to supply Japan and the US.

Deputy Minister for Economy and

Transport Lee Waters said: “Transcend Packaging is an important business in Caerphilly county borough, and I applaud the way it has changed its way of working to develop a vital product, which is helping to protect many people. The company is part of an impressive number of businesses who are standing up and making the equipment we need to help beat coronavirus, and I also thank them for all they are doing in rising to the challenge posed by this pandemic. The important work we, as a Welsh Government, are doing with companies to support our effort around PPE truly shows what is possible with urgency and collaboration.”

Similarly, following an initial submission to Life Sciences Hub Wales, long-standing Welsh manufacturer BCB International – a firm which can trace its roots back to the trenches of the Crimean War – is now working to help NHS Wales get the supplies it needs in the battle against Covid-19.

The Cardiff and Llanelli-based business specialises in manufacturing life-saving survival gear and protective equipment for British military, mariners and adventure seekers. Its founding father, Dr. John Collis Browne, originally created cough medicine that brought relief to British soldiers suffering in the trenches of the Crimean War.

Now, BCB is once again supporting the frontline, having converted its factory to make high strength alcohol sanitiser products, PPE and first responder medical equipment for NHS Wales and key workers. Since its original submission was accepted, BCB has supplied over 250,000 liters of its hand-sanitiser to the Welsh NHS and is set to provide PPE including gowns, gloves, masks and shields. The company has also created a portable carry pack containing protective equipment for use by first responders, police and those working to serve communities across Wales.

Testing has been a key priority and businesses across the country have been working day and night to develop solutions. Earlier this month it was announced that South Wales business, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, was one of three companies worldwide to produce Covid-19 antibody tests for the UK.

Ortho, a global provider of testing solutions for a wide range of diseases and medical conditions, is producing antibody tests at its state-of-the-art facility in Pencoed. The made-in-Wales tests, which have been approved by Public Health Wales and Public Health England, detect antibodies that confirm a previous and recent Covid-19 infection, letting people know whether they have had the virus. The new-style blood tests will be rolled out across the UK as part of the national testing strategy. Ortho became involved after responding to a call to action for businesses to help with the coronavirus response from the First Minister and Life Sciences Hub Wales.

Cari-Anne Quinn, Chief Executive Officer of Life Sciences Hub Wales,

said: “We have a thriving life sciences sector in Wales, which has been playing a key part in producing urgently needed products not only for Wales, but the global response to the pandemic. Welsh businesses have understood the real need to think differently, operate differently and deliver differently to meet immediate needs - repurposing their operations and resources to manufacture urgently needed items. It is clear that the Welsh-born innovations we have seen will continue to make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of the people of Wales long after this crisis has passed.”

Join us as we make our vision a reality. Contact us today to discuss how we can support you in accelerating your innovation:

lshubwales.com hello@lshubwales.com 029 2046 703