The Awards, which are in their 15th year, shine a light on companies at all stages of development, recognising inspirational leadership, exciting innovation, and novel approaches to unmet clinical needs, outstanding company progression and the delivery of real-life, tangible results.
Stuart Rose, CEO of OBN, said: “The last twelve months have been tough for life sciences globally, but the resilience and tenacity of our industry shines at times like this. The 2023 entries will probably be recognised as the highest quality in our 15-year history, and those companies and individuals who emerged at the top of their packs should be proud. Congratulations to our winners of the 2023 OBN Awards – they are exemplars of life science excellence.”
The winners of the OBN 2023 Awards are:
Best Start-up Biotech Company, kindly sponsored by Milton Park
Winner – Infinitopes - A Cancer Research UK supported team of doctors and scientists from Oxford University’s oncology, immunology, antigen discovery, vaccinology & biomanufacturing departments working to identify hidden tumour targets and create high efficiency vaccines.
Best Early Stage Medtech Company, kindly sponsored by Penningtons Manches Cooper
Winner – Novai - Aims to achieve its vision of preserving sight through early detection and treatment of ophthalmic and neurological disease and using the DARC platform.
Most Transformative HealthTec Company of the Year – presented by Taylor Wessing
Winner – Pangaea Data - AI-driven product platform to find and connect to undiagnosed and miscoded patients for 7,000 conditions, thereby improving outcomes, halving treatment costs and enabling privacy-preserving collaboration between healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Its founders have raised $300M through their academic work, including a $110M grant for AI in medicine and are advised by Lord Prior (former Chairman, NHS). Pangaea was awarded ‘Best AI in HealthTech’ at HLTH and ‘Digital Solution of the Year’ by the British government.
Most Impactful CRO of the Year, kindly sponsored by BMG LABTECH
Winner – o2h Discovery - A fully integrated CRO supporting small molecule synthesis, process R&D and scale-up from its 500+ person team of biologists and medicinal chemists in Cambridge, UK and Ahmedabad, India.
BioSeed ‘One to Watch’ Award, kindly sponsored by Precision for Medicine
Winner – Infinitopes - A Cancer Research UK supported team of doctors and scientists from Oxford University’s oncology, immunology, antigen discovery, vaccinology & biomanufacturing departments, working to identify hidden tumour targets, to create lifesaving high efficiency vaccines.
Young Life Sciences Entrepreneur of the Year, kindly sponsored by Oxford Technology Park
Winner – Kirsty Smitten – MetalloBio - A Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellow and co-founder of MetalloBio with a PhD in Chemistry and Microbiology, Kirsty has won several awards for the research underpinning MetalloBio’s technology including the ELRIG Early Career Impact Award and listing in the Forbes 30 Under 30.
Most Impactful Industry Collaboration of the Year, kindly sponsored by Mills & Reeve
Winner – CN Bio - For their collaboration with the US FDA on studies to provide data to support the use of Organ-on-a-chip (OOC) technology. Working towards a future where drugs are discovered more quickly, brought to patients more cost-effectively, and through the use of less animal experimentation.
Best Industry Support Partner of the Year, kindly sponsored by EBD Group
Winner – Medicines Discovery Catapult - An independent, not-for-profit organisation and part of the Catapult Network established by Innovate UK. MDC’s vision is to reshape drug discovery for patient benefit by transforming great UK science into better treatments through partnership.
Best Emerging Biotech Company, kindly sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific
Winner – Samsara - A biopharmaceutical company aiming to discover first-in-class therapeutics that treat rare genetic and neurodegenerative disease and extend healthy lifespan. Samsara’s platform is the largest ever pipeline for the identification, chemical optimization, and in vivo validation of compounds that enhance autophagy.
Best Established Medtech Company, presented by Ipsen
Winner – Brainomix - Has developed e-Stroke, an AI software that supports both non-specialist and specialist frontline doctors interpreting stroke brain scans to make the right treatment choices faster, and enables doctors to communicate between hospitals in real-time.
Best Established Biotech Company, kindly sponsored by Precision BioSearch
Winner – Touchlight Genetics - A biotechnology CDMO enabling the development of genetic medicines with its enzymatic doggybone DNA technology.
Special Recognition Awards 2023, presented by OBN
Winner – Melanie Lee - As CEO of LifeArc, the self-funded, non-profit medical research organisation committed to investing £1.3 billion by 2030, Melanie has guided LifeArc through a critical period of growth and change and has firmly established LifeArc’s reputation as a leading medical research charity.
For links to the webpages of winning companies and sponsors, please view the original press release, available here.
