Friday December 05 2008 | Biotechnology feed | All feeds
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Friday December 05 2008 | Biotechnology feed | All feeds
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Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith of Oxford Immunotec
Wins Entrepreneur of the Future Award
Oxford, UK: 6 December 2004… Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith, CEO of the rapidly growing T cell diagnostics company, Oxford Immunotec, was awarded the accolade of Entrepreneur of the Future at the prestigious CBI/Real Business Growing Business Awards ceremony last Thursday evening. Dr Wrighton-Smith joins the ranks of the likes of Philip Green, named “Entrepreneur’s Entrepreneur” at this year’s ceremony, and Richard Branson, who won last year’s award. Dr Wrighton-Smith said, “It is a fantastic honour to be rewarded in this way. Oxford Immunotec was the only biotechnology company to be recognised amongst the winners and I am very pleased to represent the entrepreneurial spirit of the UK’s biotechnology industry.” The Entrepreneur of the Future Award is sponsored by the Carphone Warehouse and, as winner of the Award, Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith will spend a day in the company of the Carphone Warehouse CEO, Charles Dunstone, one of the UK’s best known entrepreneurs. The Awards, organised annually by Real Business magazine and the CBI, cover the full range of British industry. The attendees at the Awards ceremony included Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and over 600 of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs. ENDS Notes to editors Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith The Carphone Warehouse Entrepreneur of the Future Graduating with a 1st from Oxford University, Wrighton-Smith joined Powderject Pharmaceuticals. By the age of 26, he was MD of PowderJect Diagnostics, an independent subsidiary. At the age of 28, he co-founded Oxford Immunotec with Dr Ajit Lalvani to commercialise a new diagnostics technology, starting with a blood test for tuberculosis called T SPOT-TB™. They raised £400,000 in seed capital and £2.5m in venture capital. Two years later, with five clinical trials completed and 15 ongoing, Oxford Immunotec has 20 employees and distributors in 19 countries, has gained regulatory approval in the EU, is revenue-generating and expects to be profitable by 2006. The need for a more reliable TB test is pressing - the disease still kills two to three million people a year and has experienced a resurgence in recent years. Oxford Immunotec believes that the market for latent TB diagnosis in the developed world is £500m, a figure that is forecast to grow. Oxford Immunotec (www.oxfordimmunotec.com ) Oxford Immunotec is a rapidly growing international clinical diagnostics company with headquarters near Oxford, UK. The Company develops and sells clinical diagnostic products based on its patented T SPOT™ technology. T SPOT is a novel platform technology that opens up new ways of diagnosing and monitoring infections by providing a simple and extremely accurate method of studying a person’s cellular immune response to an infection. T-SPOT technology can be applied to diagnose and monitor any major disease driven by a T-cell response. Oxford Immunotec's first product is T SPOT-TB, a revolutionary new in vitro diagnostic test for tuberculosis infection, recently approved for sale in Europe. It is designed to replace the tuberculin skin test, currently the only test available for the diagnosis of TB infection. T SPOT-TB allows the reliable screening and early detection of TB infection and will bring TB testing to many new patient groups where the skin test gives poor or un-interpretable results. It offers a substantially more accurate and effective tool for controlling the spread of TB. The Growing Business Awards (www.growingbusinessawards.co.uk ) Organised annually as a partnership between Real Business magazine and the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), The Growing Business Awards are now in their sixth year. Nine awards are decided by a panel of expert judges. The Entrepreneurs’ Entrepreneur category is decided by a public vote of entrepreneurs and business leaders. The Growing Business Awards 2004 judging panel consisted of: Brent Hoberman, lastminute.com Chris Ward, Deloitte Digby Jones, CBI Dr Hermann Hauser, Amadeus Capital Partners Dr Jan Hruska, Sophos John Madejski, owner of Reading FC Shai Vyakarnam, Cambridge University Stuart Rock, Caspian Publishing Photo available: Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith receives the Entrepreneur of the Future Award Media Enquiries: Katja Stout Northbank Communications The Media Village 131-151 Great Titchfield Street London W1W 5BB, UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 8150 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7886 8151 Email: k.stout@northbankcommunications.com At the Company: Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith, CEO Oxford Immunotec 91 Milton Park Abingdon Oxfordshire OX14 4RJ, UK Tel: +44 (0)1235 442780 Fax: +44 (0)1235 442781 Email: info@oxfordimmunotec.com |
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