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Cricket Club Bowled over by Partnership

Leicestershire County Cricket Club (LCCC) partnership with Morningside Pharmaceuticals

Leicestershire County Cricket Club’s medical centre will continue to be at the forefront of sports science and medicine after renewing the naming rights with Morningside Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to the creation of the Morningside Medical Centre at the Fischer County Ground, Grace Road, players and visitors were treated offsite for injuries or if they fell ill, which put added pressure on the club and emergency services when treatment was urgently needed.

Since Morningside Pharmaceuticals’ sponsorship began in 2016, LCCC has continued to make advancements in sports science and medicine. This has enabled the club to remain at the forefront of using innovative new technology and systems to ensure players, staff and the local community’s health and wellbeing are given the best support possible.

One player to have benefited from the state-of-the-art medical facilities is Club Captain, Paul Horton, who said: “As a player it’s crucial we have the facilities onsite to treat and rehabilitate us, as we need to stay on the field as much as possible.

“The cricket season is demanding and can take its toll on the players’ bodies. Crucially we need to keep as many players fit and fresh as possible, in order to compete, as injuries can have a real impact on our chances of success.”

According to LCCC’s Head of Sports Science and Medicine, Will Garvey, the medical centre has enabled the club to deliver improvements in the physical development of young cricketers and the rehabilitation of the professionals.

Mr Garvey said: “Morningside Pharmaceuticals’ continued support over recent years has enabled us to develop the facilities and equipment allowing the Sport Science and Medicine (SS&M) Team to deliver high standards of care for the first team, our academy and supporters.

“These high-quality onsite facilities have enabled us to progress the rehabilitation of our injured athletes by increasing the access we have to a usable and functional training environment. Furthermore, this ability to access the onsite facilities allows our SS&M Team to deliver individualised treatments at any time and enables our players to consistently train all year round.”

For Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Chief Executive of Morningside Pharmaceuticals and an active member of the club, the medical centre aligns well with his company’s values.

Dr Kotecha said: “Morningside Pharmaceuticals has been built upon the mission of making quality healthcare an affordable and accessible reality throughout the world.

“For this reason we’re a passionate supporter of a wide range of good causes connected to community, education, health and sport. We’re also committed to working with communities to bring them together and improving the quality of life of the people living there.”

LCCC Chief Executive Karen Rothery added: “We are delighted to extend our long-standing partnership with Morningside Pharmaceuticals.

“We pride ourselves on player and community care, the continued support of Dr Kotecha and his team will allow us to do that. The continued collaboration will ensure players maintain access to state-of-the-art equipment to examine injuries, improve player welfare and career longevity.”

Eid Al Fitr Celebration

Eid celebrations at Morningside Pharmaceuticals

Morningside Pharmaceuticals would like to wish Eid Mubarak to all visitors who are celebrating.

To celebrate Eid Al Fitr we hosted a traditional buffet lunch for colleagues in our offices at our Loughborough Distribution Centre.

Morningside Pharmaceuticals is committed to celebrating diversity, and ensuring all religious festivals, which are important to our employees, are celebrated each year.

Our colleagues come from different cultural backgrounds and we recognise that each individual’s experiences help create a more vibrant and knowledgeable working environment.

Eid Al Fitr is a huge celebration in the Islamic calendar, commemorating the end of the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic Calendar and the holiest, filled with extra prayer, fasting and charitable deeds.

The month begins when the crescent Moon is sighted, and this can vary from country to country. It ends when a month later the crescent Moon is spotted – and the festival of Eid al Fitr begins.

BLOG: 3 Top Tips for Trading in Africa

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE blog on exporting to Africa

Morningside Pharmaceuticals’ CEO Dr Nik Kotecha OBE is proud to be a Department for International Trade (DIT) Export Champion. Export Champions are experienced professionals who donate their time to help businesses, which are looking to export globally.  

In this blog, written in support of the work of the DIT, Dr Kotecha shares his experiences and advice about doing business in Africa with companies connected to the healthcare and life sciences sector. 

“In the 30 years Morningside Pharmaceuticals has been doing business in Africa, we have seen some fantastic opportunities and faced some challenges. We started exporting to Africa in the 1990s and have moved on from the days of fax machines and phone calls to emails and websites. And export growth in antibiotics, oncology drugs and orthopaedic appliances are just some areas where growth continues.

In fact, orthopaedic appliance exports to Kenya, which include hearing aids, crutches and prosthetic limbs increased by 204% from 2017 to 2018, and by 485% in the same timeframe to Ethiopia. Meanwhile, Antibiotics exports to Ghana increased by 8498.3% in the same period showing there is demand for medical technologies and medicines.

1) In-market expertise

It is now easier than ever to make initial contact in market. We have worked closely with the Department for International Trade, and previously when it was UKTI, joining trade missions with other business people so that we could meet contacts face-to-face with an expert on hand.

Relationship building is crucial when doing business in Africa, and face-to-face meetings are so important to build trust and find the most appropriate partner or agent to help you navigate the political and cultural sensitivities of different parts of the continent. The value of a business card and good contacts should not be underestimated.

2) Paperwork, supply chains and money

Ensuring you have the correct documentation for the country you are trading with is essential, and this varies greatly. Your products must also be shipped with the correct documents to ensure that they do not get stuck in customs. And these requirements differ, some will need pre-shipment inspections, while others have document legalisation.

Getting paid, legal issues including intellectual property, regulations, foreign exchange, transport and logistics are also areas where having a suitable agent can mitigate risks.

Supply chain fragmentation is one issue that came up recently at the UK East Africa Health Summit I attended on May 27. There is often an excessive number of intermediaries between the facility where the medicine is manufactured and the dispensing outlet.

3) Opportunities and development

However, supply chains also offer an investment opportunity to UK businesses. Quality medicines require secure transportation and a temperature-controlled environment, and adequate transportation and storage are crucial to maintain quality products. There are multiple opportunities for the private sector and UK business to invest in the infrastructure around the whole supply chain.

Also discussed at the summit was counterfeit or fake medicines. It is anticipated that fake anti-malarials contributed to 116,000 additional deaths a year from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa alone. The private sector has an opportunity to invest in innovations such as 2D barcoding and tamper-evident packaging.

Although it is easier for UK suppliers to export to systems that are modelled on the NHS instead of those that are market-lead, countries such as Kenya and Rwanda reflect a more favourable health system maturity, as emerging systems are currently investing heavily in improving local health services.

My advice would be to see it, touch it and do it. There is no better time to export your product to Africa as their healthcare and life sciences sectors grow.”

£85K of Cancer Drugs Donated to Gaza Hospital

Morningside Pharmaceuticals made an £85k medicines.

Morningside Pharmaceuticals has donated medicines worth £85,000 to help treat cancer patients in a Palestinian hospital.

The business donated 3,000 packs of Oncology drug Capecitabine tablets to charity International Health Partners (IHP), which in turn will distribute the medicine via a charitable NGO to the hospital in the Gaza Strip.

The medicine, which can be prescribed as part of a patient’s chemotherapy treatment, is being provided to the Shifa Hospital, which is the only hospital in the territory able to receive cancer medicine because it has an Oncology Unit.

Hannah Dean, Partnership and Programmes Officer for IHP, which specialises in supporting healthcare companies with donating medicines, said: “IHP is delighted to be partnering with Morningside Pharmaceuticals to coordinate the delivery of essential, high quality medicines to the most vulnerable people in the world, such as those in the Gaza strip.

“I have recently returned from visiting this programme in Gaza and know that this generous donation will really benefit a lot of cancer patients currently struggling to access essential medicines there. This donation of vital oncology medicine will mean that cancer patients can access the treatment they need free of charge.”

Shifa Hospital provides almost 70% of the public medical services in Gaza in peacetime and almost 90% of the emergency medical services during war and in times of unrest. It is the largest public hospital out of a total of 14 hospitals in the Gaza Strip and serves 100,000s of patients every year, including almost 300,000 outpatients and about 50,000 inpatients.

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Chief Executive of Morningside Pharmaceuticals, said: “According to the Lancet, cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the Palestinian territories, accounting for 14% of deaths, which is predicted to increase.

“Morningside Pharmaceuticals is proud to have distributed quality medicine to more than 100 countries world-wide over the past 28 years, many of which are low/middle income countries. We are delighted to have been able to make this significant donation, which we hope will help treat and save hundreds of patients.”

Morningside Pharmaceuticals is a medicine manufacturer and supplier to NHS hospitals and pharmacies in the UK. Globally the business is one of the leading medical suppliersto aid agencies, charities and NGOs – including UNICEF, the Red Cross and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

IHP is a registered charity which specialises in helping healthcare companies in Europe donate to healthcare professionals, charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which in turn use them to give those in vulnerable and disaster-hit communities access to quality medicines.

BLOG: African Healthcare Offers Big Opportunities

When the Prime Minister Theresa May visited Africa last year she set an ambitious target for the UK to overtake the US to become the G7’s biggest investor in Africa by 2022.

During the three-day trade mission to South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya the PM promised a ‘new partnership’ fuelled by UK private sector companies and the Government investing billions of pounds to match the economic might of rival foreign investors China and the United States.

Last weekend the investment spotlight was firmly fixed on London, as the 4th UK East Africa Health Summit came to the capital, hosted at the prestigious British Medical Association, with the aim of strengthening health systems in Africa.

Delegations from the UK and African governments, NHS leaders, policy makers and representatives from African Ministries of Health came together with international healthcare experts, investors, solution providers and business leaders.

A focus for the summit was looking for greater and more effective private sector investment in order to achieve national and international goals, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

One entrepreneur and business leader who is working to provide solutions to current and future health issues is Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Chief Executive of Morningside Pharmaceuticals.

Dr Kotecha has been doing business in Africa for almost 30 years. In that time his company has supplied cost effective, quality medicines directly to African countries by working with the Private sector, Ministries of Health, and through large aid agencies such as UNICEF, The World Health Organisation (WHO), MSF and the Red Cross.

During the summit Dr Kotecha hosted a Q&A session on Safe Access to Medicines, Vaccines and Medical Devices, focussing on areas where private sector investment can establish and build sustainable processes and healthcare systems in Africa.

“When the Prime Minister visited Africa last year she saw big opportunities for the UK’s private business sector, which has the capacity to deliver significant investment and innovations,” says Dr Kotecha.

“There are a number of healthcare areas where UK investment will make a real difference. Firstly, there are great opportunities to set-up local manufacturing facilities in Africa to ensure the supply of cost effective quality medicines is improved and maintained. This is starting to happen but still 79% of medicines consumed in Africa are imported.

“This comes with its own challenges as the supply chain is fragmented and often has an excessive number of intermediaries between the facility where the medicine is manufactured and the dispensing outlet.

“Counterfeit, or ‘fake’ medicine is also a huge problem. It’s estimated that fake anti-malarials contributed to 116,000 additional deaths a year from Malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. While governments need to do more to stop these medicines coming into the system, the private sector has an opportunity to invest in innovations, such as 2D barcoding and tamper evident packaging.

“Supply chains offer another investment opportunity to UK businesses. Quality medicines require secure transportation and a temperature controlled environment. There is a great opportunity for UK businesses to invest in the infrastructure around the whole supply chain of medicines, as inadequate transportation and storage will lower the quality of the products.”

One African healthcare issue which is also a concern to the West is antibiotic resistance, which includes finding new ways to fight drug-resistant super-bugs.

“Many African communities are still using the older antibiotics,” says Dr Kotecha. “These antibiotics are used less in established economies because newer antibiotics have been introduced. Resistance is a big problem mainly because there has been so much over prescribing of antibiotics. Not enough Research and Development is taking place to allow us to come up with new molecules. The significant funding for research just isn’t there.

“Some of the newer drugs do work much better than the older ones. However, that is the nature of these types of medicines, there will always be microbial resistance of some sort when trying to treat these diseases. It means you need investment in new molecules and medicines to take place, which is where private sector businesses have the answers and will play a pivotal role.”

As well as looking at how the UK can help African communities, the summit also looked at partnerships with the NHS.

Dr Kotecha said: “The idea of this summit was to bring health professionals from East Africa into the British Medical Association with the support of the British Medical Journal. There were significant key opinion leaders and healthcare professionals from the healthcare industry in East Africa who attended.

“An outcome of the summit will hopefully be that skills and expertise that we have in the NHS will be provided to our African colleagues, and we are also learning from some of the great work that’s happening in East Africa. Nursing was a particular focus of the summit, with health and political leaders discussing ways to help share best practices around this very important role.

“I hope to see some collaborations where we can send our NHS nurses and doctors out into Africa to help with techniques and knowledge bases there, as well as invite healthcare professionals from East Africa here for training”.

“It’s clear there are no easy answers to some of the healthcare challenges faced by the African nations. But if politicians, healthcare professionals, Aid agencies and business leaders can work more closely together, then we stand a great chance of making significant progress.”

The UK East Africa Health Summit was convened and supported by the Uganda UK Health Alliance, British Medical Association (BMA), British Medical Journal (BMJ), NHS Health Education England and headline sponsors Morningside Pharmaceuticals.

Global Spotlight on UK-African Healthcare

UK East Africa Health Summit

An international summit focussed on improving the health of communities in Africa and headline sponsored by Morningside Pharmaceuticals has united political, health and private sector leaders.

The 4th East African Health Summit took place in London and looked for ways to support the UK and East African governments with responding to current and future health issues, as well as achieving greater investment in African healthcare systems.

The summit was convened and supported by the Uganda UK Health Alliance, British Medical Association (BMA), British Medical Journal (BMJ), NHS Health Education England, and sponsors Morningside Pharmaceuticals.

Delegations from the UK and African governments, NHS leaders, policy makers and representatives from African ministries of health came together with international healthcare experts, investors, solution providers and business leaders.

Moses Mulimira, UK Lead for the Uganda UK Health Alliance, said:  “It will be impossible to achieve national and international goals, including sustainable development goals, without greater and more effective investment in health systems and services.

“While more resources are needed, governments are also looking for ways of doing more with existing resources. They are seeking innovative ways of harnessing and focusing the energies of global health communities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector.

“This summit brought together significant individuals from East Africa and the UK to share ideas.

“We will looked at ways that some of the skills and expertise of the NHS can support African healthcare systems, and of course this works both ways, so the NHS can learn from some of the amazing work taking place in Africa.

“This will undoubtedly lead to more collaborations where nurses and doctors from the UK work in Africa, to help with techniques and the knowledge base there, as well as bring healthcare professionals from Africa to the UK for training.

“The summit also encouraged professional volunteering in both directions, as well as better coordinated joint-working collaborations.”

Lord Nigel Crisp, who was Chief Executive of the National Health Service (NHS) and Permanent Secretary to the Department of Health between 2000 and 2006, added: “Nurses and midwives make up the largest part of the health workforce in East Africa and I believe that some of the greatest improvements in health will come from enabling them to work to their full potential. They are the health professionals closest to the community and with support from technology and medical staff can reach and help more people than ever before.”

One success story from the past year saw Everton Football Club send a representative to attend the UK East Africa Health Improvement Summit in Uganda, as well as pledging the Club’s charitable support for 5 years to the West Nile refugee operation in East Africa.

Part of the summit will look to private sector businesses to provide innovative solutions and investment in African healthcare systems.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) led an event in the House of Lords, chaired by Lord Dolar Popat the UK Trade Envoy to Rwanda and Uganda, where business leaders looked at how promoting private sector engagement and UK exports can strengthen bilateral trade across the East African markets.

Lord Popat said: “As the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Uganda and Rwanda, it is my mission to strengthen Britain’s post Brexit trade and investment with a continent that hosts some of the fastest growing economies in the world.

“Uganda and UK have what it takes to be partners on the road ahead in world class health care. We share a tremendous history, a common working language, and a lot of affection for each other’s countries. We have to work together, so that we can help each other to have a mutually bright future ahead.”

One business which supplies quality medicines to Africa is Morningside Pharmaceuticals whose Chief Executive, Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, hosted a Q&A session on Safe Access to Medicines, Vaccines and Medical Devices.

Dr Kotecha said: “For almost 30 years we have supplied quality medicines directly to African countries by working with ministries of health, and through large aid agencies such as UNICEF, The World Health Organisation (WHO), MSF and the Red Cross.

“In that time we’ve seen some fantastic opportunities and some challenges. Some of the priority areas we focused on included; access to safe medicines and looking for businesses to set up local manufacturing plants to ensure the supply of cost effective quality medicines is maintained.

“More needs to be done to regulate and remove counterfeit medicines from healthcare systems too, and lastly it’s important that medicines that are imported in are transported in a safe and secure temperature controlled way, so they arrive undamaged.”

Another healthcare priority area of the summit was to explore how governments are supporting major health issues, particularly Malaria.

A session will was hosted by Jeremy Lefroy MP, Chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, which aimed to raise awareness of malaria and neglected tropical diseases amongst parliamentarians; and to encourage the UK Government to provide political will, leadership and sustainable funding for the necessary prevention and treatment of these diseases.

The summit also looked for fresh ways to galvanize investment in Research and Development including malaria vaccines and treatment drugs, new generations of insecticides and genetic modifications, which would be designed to eliminate malaria carrying mosquitoes or prevent transmission.

The UK East Africa Health Summit took place at the HQ of the British Medical Journal, Tavistock Square, London, on April 27, 2019, with the House of Lords event taking place on April 26, 2019.

Happy Easter from Morningside!

Easter celebrations at Morningside Pharmaceuticals

To mark the Easter break Morningside Pharmaceuticals has held an egg-cellent fundraiser.

Our colleagues hopped into their kitchens and brought in a wide-variety of cakes, in order to raise money for the National Autism Society.

The fundraiser coincides with World Autism Awareness Month, with all money raised helping to support some of the 700,000 adults and children living with some form of autism in the UK.

To help raise funds colleagues made a donation in return for an Easter cake. We also raised money through a Spring-inspired dress down day and charity quiz.

In total we’re egg-static to reveal that £76.77 was raised for the charity!

As part of our support for the National Autism Society, we wanted to share a few facts about autism with you to help raise awareness of this hidden disability.

  • The term ‘autism’ is used to describe all diagnostic profiles, including Asperger syndrome and Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA).
  • Autism is a hidden disability – you can’t always tell if someone is autistic.
  • There are around 700,000 people on the autism spectrum in the UK – that’s more than 1 in 1001.
  • If you include their families, autism is a part of daily life for 2.8 million people in the UK.

For more information on Autism please visit the National Autism Society’s website here.

BLOG: Leicestershire Innovation Awards

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Chief Executive of Morningside Pharmaceuticals, delivering a speech at the LeicestershireLive Innovation Awards 2019

As part of Morningside Pharmaceuticals’ headline sponsorship of the 2019 Innovation Awards, our CEO Dr Nik Kotecha OBE was proud to speak at the ceremony.

The awards were the first of their kind in Leicestershire and featured an exhibition by many of the nominees and other local companies; a soap box style stage for businesses to pitch their products; and the main awards which honoured some of the county’s most significant innovators and innovations.

Here are extracts from Dr Nik’s speech, written into a blog to help support other businesses looking to grow by investing in innovation:

“What is Innovation? I have often wondered what the straightforward answer is and realise now that it can mean so many things, depending on what your business does.

“In a nutshell, innovation means to me: the process of turning your ideas into reality. For businesses, being innovative often means embracing measured risks whilst taking a holistic approach to the whole business.

“It also means having a strategy that delivers improved customer satisfaction and better management of your suppliers and supply chain.

“So how do businesses become innovative? From my experience, a good place to start is to have a clear vision and strategy.

“Another essential ingredient is investing in infrastructure, regular training of our people, embracing technologies and R&D. Also encouraging our teams to share ideas by holding regular brainstorming sessions.

“Lastly but most importantly, being passionate about continuous improvement whilst embracing change.

“Therefore, it is clear Innovative businesses will have the natural edge over their competitors. They will be able to drive growth and profitability and it will be these businesses, which are able to identify and benefit from a changing market place.”

“My hope is that the 2019 Innovation Awards will help galvanise companies to see the benefits of investing in new approaches to grow their businesses.”

Morningside Pharmaceuticals sponsored the LeicestershireLive Innovation Awards 2019

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, CEO of Morningside Pharmaceuticals, with George Oliver, Editor of the Leicester Mercury and LeicestershireLive

Morningside Pharmaceuticals sponsored the LeicestershireLive Innovation Awards 2019