Life science sector collaboration for the Midlands and Ohio

Medilink Midlands and the City of Mentor are collaborating to promote bilateral trade and investment between the Midlands region of the UK and Northeast Ohio.

The City of Mentor is located in Northeast Ohio, a 20-minute drive from downtown Cleveland, and is part of a cluster of life science and biomedical companies that have grown up around the Cleveland Clinic, one of the world’s leading hospitals. There are over 700 medical and bioscience companies in Northeast Ohio and the cluster includes world-leading companies such as General Electric, Siemens, Philips, Toshiba, Hitachi, and STERIS.

Medilink Midlands is a strategic collaboration between Medilink East Midlands and Medilink West Midlands to support and promote the life sciences sector in the Midlands region of the UK. Medilink Midlands brings the collective expertise of the two organisations together to support over 1700 life sciences organisations within the region. The UK has the third largest medical technology sector in Europe, and the Midlands has the largest regional cluster in this sector in Europe.

The recent launch of Medilink Midlands follows the announcement of the UK’s Industrial Strategy: government’s long-term plan to boost the productivity and earning power of people throughout the country. One of the five core foundations of the strategy is ‘places: prosperous communities across the UK’. Working alongside the Midlands Engine and other strategic alliances, Medilink Midlands’ sole aim is to help stimulate additional and value-added growth of the Midlands as a prosperous community for Life Sciences.

Dr Darren Clark, Director of Medilink Midlands, said: “The collaboration between the City of Mentor, and Northeast Ohio, is the first international relationship announced by Medilink Midlands since it was launched. North Eastern Ohio is an attractive strategic location for Midlands companies looking to establish a low-cost foothold in the largest medical and life sciences market in the world. The State of Ohio is an important manufacturing region in the USA and has considerable potential synergies with the Midlands Region – the UK’s leading manufacturing region. Medilink Midlands looks forward to encouraging a broader collaboration between the two regions through its partnership with Midlands Engine.”