Renishaw Joins BioWales In Celebrating The Welsh Life Sciences Sector

BioWales is an annual event which celebrates the thriving life sciences sector in Wales. Renishaw will join a range of global companies, small and medium-sized enterprises and NHS professionals in endorsing this year’s themes of Innovation, Partnerships and Prosperity.

Innovation
Renishaw supplies a range of innovative technological solutions designed to address the challenges of healthcare. Renishaw’s products for neurosurgery are designed to aid neurosurgeons deliver neurosurgical procedures with greater confidence and accuracy. A successful patient outcome often depends on the neurosurgeon being able to identify and accurately target minute and difficult to reach areas of the brain. Renishaw’s neurosurgical planning software and robotic assistant for neurosurgery provide an innovative platform which can support neurosurgeons in meticulous trajectory planning and accurate procedure execution. BioWales 2018 marks the anniversary of the first Renishaw neuromate® stereotactic robot assisted procedure in Wales being carried out at the BRAIN unit in Cardiff.

Renishaw is also applying its expertise in metal additive manufacturing (3D printing) to the production of customised medical implants. As a manufacturing process, 3D printing is ideally suited to the production of customised parts such as dental frameworks or cranial implants. The Renishaw range of additive manufacturing systems use laser bed fusion to build parts in layers as thin as 40 microns, for a comfortable fit and good aesthetic result.

Partnerships
For a number of years, Renishaw has been working in collaboration with clinical experts to develop an intraparenchymal drug delivery system. The neuroinfuse™ catheter system is a novel engineering solution which could provide the next step change in the treatment of neuro diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and brain tumours. neuroinfuse™ allows neurosurgeons to deliver pharmaceuticals directly into the brain tissue, bypassing the blood brain barrier which would otherwise filter drugs down to sub-therapeutic levels. The system is currently in the clinical trial phase of development and Renishaw is seeking academic, clinical and industrial partners across a wide range of indications, from oncology to neurodegenerative diseases.

Prosperity
With 350 people employed at the Miskin site near Cardiff, Renishaw is committed to supporting the development of engineering talent in South Wales. The Miskin site is home to the Renishaw Healthcare Centre of Excellence, which houses a mock operating theatre for the training and professional development of neurosurgeons, plus a facility for the manufacture of customised maxillofacial implants produced using Renishaw’s metal 3D printing systems. Employment opportunities range from apprenticeships to senior engineering roles. The site at Miskin highlights how healthcare innovation and local economic prosperity can often go hand in hand.

About Renishaw
UK-based Renishaw is a world leading engineering technologies company, supplying products used for applications as diverse as jet engine and wind turbine manufacture, through to facial reconstruction and neuro surgery. It has over 4,000 employees located in the 35 countries where it has wholly owned subsidiary operations.

For the year ended June 2017 Renishaw recorded sales of £536.8 million of which 95% was due to exports. The company’s largest markets are China, the USA, Japan and Germany.

Throughout its history Renishaw has made a significant commitment to research and development, with historically between 14 and 18% of annual sales invested in R&D and engineering. The majority of this R&D and manufacturing of the company’s products is carried out in the UK.

The Company’s success has been recognised with numerous international awards, including eighteen Queen’s Awards recognising achievements in technology, export and innovation.