Proton Partners International has received planning permission to build a £35m cancer treatment centre in Liverpool (Insider Media, 2017). The proposed centre is earmarked for a site in the new £1bn Paddington Village scheme, part of Knowledge Quarter Liverpool. The Liverpool oncology centre, which will be known as the Rutherford Cancer Centre North West, aims … Continue reading Proton Partners gets planning permission for Liverpool cancer treatment centre

The University of Birmingham has secured £2m from the NIHR to launch a research group aimed at improving healthcare for patients with lung diseases around the world (University of Birmingham, 2017). The NIHR Global Health Research Group on Global COPD in Primary Care will be based at the University of Birmingham and will be co-directed … Continue reading University of Birmingham secures £2m for COPD research

PCI Pharma Services has announced a significant expansion of its serialisation capability at its Hay-on-Wye site (PCI Pharma Services, 2017). The suite installation increases the site’s serialisation capability to support PCI’s clients in advance of meeting the implementation dates of the European Falsified Medicines Directive (EU FMD). The highly flexible technology delivers machine and human-readable … Continue reading PCI expands serialisation in Hay-on-Wye

Children exposed to antidepressants during pregnancy seem to be at a slightly higher risk of autism than children of mothers with psychiatric disorders who were not treated with antidepressants during pregnancy, according to a University of Bristol study published in The BMJ (University of Bristol, 2017). However, the researchers stress that the absolute risk of … Continue reading Study investigates link between antidepressant use in pregnancy and autism

People with Alzheimer’s disease are already helping with a ground breaking government-funded trial led by academics from the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Queen’s University Belfast and University College London, and hosted by North Bristol NHS Trust, but even more people are needed to take part in the study (University of Bristol, 2017). The research study, … Continue reading More participants needed for Alzheimer’s disease study

Medical products and technologies company ConvaTec Group has struck a major deal to acquire US business Woodbury Holdings from MTS Health Investors for an enterprise value of $120.5m (£92.5m) (Insider Media, 2017). Woodbury is an independent national distributor of incontinence and catheter-related supplies, and also provides an array of nutritional, enteral feeding and vascular compression … Continue reading ConvaTec acquires Woodbury Holdings

University of Birmingham scientists are carrying out pioneering research as part of a major £10m study aimed at improving outcomes for patients who have suffered a traumatic injury (University of Birmingham, 2017). The four year unique “Golden Hour” study, launched in 2014, aims to improve the understanding of what happens to the immune system within … Continue reading Golden Hour study details the earliest changes to the immune system after trauma

The University of Birmingham is part of a major new €19m project aimed at breaking new ground for the development of treatments for millions of patients with heart disease in Europe (University of Birmingham, 2017). BigData@Heart is a five year project run by the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a European public-private consortium consisting of patient networks, … Continue reading University of Birmingham becomes part of a €19m European heart disease project

A study by University of Birmingham researchers has shown that GPs are prescribing anticoagulants to patients with an irregular heartbeat against official safety advice (University of Birmingham, 2017). The study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, was carried out by researchers at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Applied Health Research. Best practice … Continue reading Study finds anticoagulant drugs being prescribed against safety advice

The NIHR has awarded £7m to the Universities of Birmingham, Edinburgh and Warwick to establish a joint research unit focused on developing global surgical research (University of Birmingham, 2017). The newly established NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery will be based at the University of Birmingham. It will be co-directed by Professor Dion … Continue reading £7m global surgical research unit launched