Despite challenging economic conditions and in the face of fierce competition, Shimadzu UK has achieved sales order growth of 30% in the last two years. This growth has been achieved across many products in the formidable Shimadzu range including GC, GCMS, LC, LCMS, Spectroscopy, TOC and Material…

Rock Spring Ventures will launch a £50 million venture capital fund to invest in life science companies spun out of UK universities.

A spin-out company from the University of Strathclyde has been awarded £1.4 million to help it harness tidal energy.

SABIC UK Petrochemicals scooped the Gold Standard Skills Award at the recent Chemical Industries Awards, while Sembcorp Industries’ George Ritchie was recognised for a lifetime of work in promoting apprenticeships.

CERN has adopted a new approach to knowledge transfer – CERN easy Access IP.

GlaxoSmithKline and the University of Nottingham have formalised a collaboration to establish a Centre of Excellence for sustainable chemistry, and to construct an innovative carbon neutral sustainable chemistry laboratory.

The Wellcome Trust is to launch a £200m investments business for healthcare and life sciences.

Sanofi are to close their drug manufacturing site in Newcastle, and the Genzyme R&D site in Cambridge, resulting in the loss of over 500 jobs.

The Welsh Government has appointed Oxford Innovation to deliver the High Potential Starts programme, which will assist start-up and early stage life sciences firms with high growth potential to grow more rapidly over the next three years.

Following the publication of their full year 2011 results, AstraZeneca have announced a restructuring programme that could deliver annual benefits of $1.6 billion, but affect 7,300 jobs globally.