MEU presented with The Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade by Dr Eamonn O’Neal, Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester
The Medicines Evaluation Unit Ltd (MEU) has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade for its outstanding growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Now in its 56th year, the Queen’s Award is the most prestigious business award in the country, with winning businesses able to adopt the esteemed Queen’s Award emblem for the next five years. The Awards celebrate the success of exciting and innovative businesses which are leading the way with pioneering products or services, delivering impressive social mobility programmes or showing their commitment to sustainable development practices.
The MEU grew out of the NHS, initially with just two members of staff, leasing six beds from Wythenshawe Hospital (our local 1000-bed hospital). In 1999, it was established as a limited company, under the control of the North-West Lung Centre Charity (NWLC Charity), which remains the majority shareholder.
The MEU has now grown to employ 140 staff, and is one of the world’s leading clinical trial and research facilities. It has over 20 years of experience in undertaking clinical trials for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, especially in the USA and Europe. The MEU provides added value by improving the design of clinical trials and offering intellectual input into the outcomes. It has efficiently and safely completed over 400 clinical trials involving over 15,000 patients and volunteers. As a result, The MEU has had a huge impact on patients’ lives around the world, by enabling the development of many new treatments used by patients with asthma and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).
In addition, during the pandemic, The MEU led studies of new treatments for COVID-19. It ran the ACCORD platform across 15 regional NHS hospitals, identifying better treatments for the most vulnerable COVID-19 patients.
Over the last decade, The MEU has donated £10 Million to its parent company, The North West Lung Centre Charity, which directly supports lung research and patient care in the North West. For example, it has supported the world-leading innovative service developments in Lung Cancer screening and treatment which are having a major impact on patient outcomes, and recently provided £500,000 towards an MR Scanner for Heart and Lung research.
“I am proud to be part of a company that is not only commercially successful, but also beneficially impacts the lives of individuals all over the world and the Queen’s Award is the icing on the cake.” – Professor Dave Singh, Medical Director of the Medicines Evaluation Unit.
“An early phase clinical trials unit can only be successful if it operates safely at all times and provides good quality data from its trials. We are proud of our team and its dedication to maintaining these high standards. This has been recognised by the MHRA (The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) in our outstanding accreditation inspection history, where there have been no Major findings in over 10 years. Our staff deserve this award.”- Liz Batty, Clinical Research Manager
“It is a fantastic achievement to win such a prestigious award and a privilege to work with such a dedicated team at our clinical research facility based in Manchester. We are proud to be in a city with a history of industry and innovation and we are delighted to be continuing this innovation by helping international pharmaceutical companies to develop ground-breaking medicines for patients and future generations.” – David Rogers, Director of Operations, Medicines Evaluation Unit.
“The award is not to an individual, not to management, but to the whole workforce. It does, however, reflect vision, creativity, sound management, good communication and an enthusiastic and loyal workforce. On behalf of Her Majesty The Queen, I have the honour to present Medicines Evaluation Unit with this, The Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2020 in the category of International Trade. May I on behalf of Her Majesty congratulate you all for this remarkable achievement, and give you Her good wishes for your continuing success.” – Dr Eamonn O’Neal, Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester.