Innovative partnership among the best in 50 years
ARU’s work with Detoxpeople achieves double win at prestigious national awards
Professor Mohammad Najlah (centre) receives an award from Innovate UK
A collaboration between an Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) research team and an Essex-based company has been recognised as one of the UK’s most innovative knowledge transfer partnerships of the past 50 years, winning an award and a silver medal at a national ceremony.
A knowledge transfer partnership, or KTP, is a collaborative partnership between a business and academic institution to create positive impact and drive innovation. The work between ARU and Chelmsford-based Detoxpeople received the Business Transformation Award and a silver medal in the Golden Award at the annual awards ceremony of Innovate UK – the UK’s national innovation agency.
Launched in 2021 and led by Professor Mohammad Najlah of ARU, the partnership supported the creation of GMPriority Pharma, a specialist company dedicated to advanced liposomal technologies. Liposomes are tiny bubbles made of the same material as a cell membrane, that can be filled with drugs to allow them to enter the body.
The growth of GMPriority Pharma continues to fuel local employment and has driven commercial expansion into more than 27 countries worldwide.
GMPriority Pharma is now the UK’s first manufacturer to specialise exclusively in liposomal nutraceutical and skincare products, providing production and research and development services.
The company produces its own brand of liposomal supplements, lipolife®. While liposomes have long been used in pharmaceutical applications such as cancer therapy, recent advances in nanotechnology have broadened their potential in nutritional and skincare science.
Previously, lipolife® products were manufactured in Europe, limiting Detoxpeople’s ability to control formulation quality and consistency. Through this collaboration with ARU, manufacturing was brought in-house to GMPriority Pharma, improving product stability and enhancing overall quality through the application of ARU’s expertise in liposomal science.
The Golden Award was created to mark the 50th anniversary of the Innovate UK KTP programme, and this week’s final recognised the most innovative and creative KTPs out of around 16,000 projects since 1975.
The partnership team received the award at a ceremony in Salford, and it follows last year’s nomination for the Best of the Best Partnership Award for the partnership.
“For Detoxpeople to go from being just a distributor to a manufacturer, owning a state-of-art production facility supported by full-scale research and development laboratories, is a journey that we are extremely proud to have have helped with through the knowledge transfer partnership.
“The project has had a transformational impact on the industry from the early stages and the knowledge transfer partnership has created unbelievable opportunities for our researchers to link with industry, develop their ideas and use the knowledge and expertise to translate research from lab bench to store shelves.
“To win an award and for the project also being recognised as one of the most impactful in the last 50 years is a true honour for our team and partners.”
Mohammad Najlah, Professor of Pharmaceutics and Nanomedicine at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)
“As a direct result of this KTP, we have achieved substantial financial growth and global market expansion. Profitability has strengthened markedly and future turnover forecasts have been significantly revised upward, reflecting continued confidence in the partnership’s commercial success.”
Charley Nicholls, Chief Operating Officer of GMPriority Pharma