Duke of York visits Alderley Park

Main image: Winners of the regional ‘Pitch on Tour’ event at Alderley Park. Left to right: Promedstem, Memrica and Exyo Design

The Duke of York today visited Alderley Park as part of Pitch@Palace 5.0.

Pitch@Palace was founded by HRH in 2014 to help entrepreneurs across the UK turn their ideas into successful businesses by providing access to mentors and potential business partners.

Duke of York - Pitch@Palace 5.0

The Manchester event was supported by AstraZeneca, which employs approximately 4,000 people across the region. Pitch@Palace 5.0 has a focus on biotech and healthcare and life sciences in particular. Twelve biotech entrepreneurs from across the North West pitched to a team of judges as part of today’s event. The following winners have been selected to progress to a Boot Camp at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in Cambridge on 22 February, where they will be joined by winners from two other regional heats.

  • Promedstem at the University of Liverpool, developing stem cell products aimed at improving healing following knee surgery.
  • Exyo Design, creating novel, potentially life-enhancing medical devices such as posture walkers for people with balance impairments.
  • Memrica, creators of a digital ‘back-up memory’ designed to help people live well with conditions such as early dementia.

Boot Camp will be a chance for the successful entrepreneurs to hear from experts from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Barclays, as well as Pitch@Palace alumni. They will also receive mentoring. Success at the Boot Camp will lead to a chance to pitch at St James’s Palace on 7 March to an audience of around 300 CEOs from across the sector, mentors and potential business partners.

Speaking at the event, Prince Andrew said: “Innovation and entrepreneurship is a cornerstone of our economy. Pitch@Palace provides a platform to accelerate and amplify the work of our entrepreneurs in the UK. To date, it has helped more than 100 companies.

“Biotech is an increasingly important area as we address global healthcare issues. It is also one in which the UK can become a global leader. I look forward to seeing these fledgling businesses develop and succeed in impacting on the lives of people across the globe.”

Shaun Grady, Vice President, Business Development at AstraZeneca said: “We are delighted to be involved with the Pitch@Palace initiative and to be supporting the next generation of UK biotechs. It’s fitting that today’s event is taking place at Alderley Park, a site which is home to over a thousand AstraZeneca staff and which has contributed enormously to human health through the products invented and developed by the scientists here.”

In 2013 AstraZeneca set up the BioHub at Alderley Park, which is now home to over 130 start-up companies. The site is now owned by Manchester Science Partnerships, which is continuing to develop the 400 acre site as a centre of excellence for biotech and life science innovation.

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