Australian healthcare company, Orthocell Ltd, is a regenerative medicine company committed to improving the lives of patients suffering from serious musculoskeletal conditions by developing innovative products that restore patient mobility, function and performance.  They have recently established their European HQ at Innovation Centre 1 at Keele University Science and Innovation Park, saying the space ‘ticks all the boxes’.

European Manager, Kevin Edwards, commented: “The UK has a lot to offer to foreign investors such as Orthocell.  The Department of International Trade’s regional inward investment team have been very helpful in providing a pathway to MedilinkWM who, via their Industry Innovation Gateway role for the WMAHSN, helped us to find excellent regional academic and clinical partners and a location for our business through their links to Keele University Science and Innovation Park.  We knew it was the best fit; it ticks all the boxes for achieving our goals and ambitions.

“Keele University Science and Innovation Park has a fantastic reputation, access to great cell regeneration laboratories, world-leading academics, and great surgeons at University Hospitals of North Staffordshire NHS Trust (UHNM) and Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) in Oswestry.  Being located here in the Midlands is just what we wanted, with great UK and international transport links as well as leading clinical and surgical work both in the orthopaedic trauma and dental sectors right on our doorstep.”

Since becoming tenants, Orthocell have been working with Keele University’s Professor Nick Forsyth and regulatory bodies to build a strategy for introducing regenerative therapies for treating musculoskeletal diseases into the UK market, building on their recent CelGro collagen medical device CE Mark for bone and soft tissue reconstruction and established orthopaedic and dental treatment work in Australia.

Professor Nick Forsyth, Director of Keele's Institute of Science and Technology in Medicine and Professor of Stem Cell Biology, said: “Keele University and RJAH have a rich legacy of orthopaedic cell therapy developed under the stewardship of the late Professor Richardson.  This legacy, combined with the future vision, product range and commercial expertise of Orthocell, creates a fantastic partnership opportunity.  It is with great delight that we welcome Orthocell to the region and look forward to working with them in regenerative medicine for the musculoskeletal system beyond the bounds of Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital and expanding our regional excellence into a position of national prominence.”

For more information and availability on Keele University’s Science and Innovation Park, please click here.

Pictured (L-R): Kevin Edwards (Orthocell European Manager) and Professor M.H. Zheng (Co-Founder of Orthocell).