Last Updated on 12/06/2024 by Sarah Sarsby
At the recent British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) Conference 2024, Barney Willis, Deputy Head of Life Sciences at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), explained how DBT provides practical support to UK medtech SMEs with exporting.
The BHTA Conference 2024 focused on the UK healthtech landscape over the next five years. It was a chance for BHTA members to hear from senior government and NHS speakers about how the changes made today will impact the future of the health service.
Barney began by explaining what the DBT does. The department brings together business and trade in a single department. Export and investment are the two pillars of the department. DBT also opens up new markets for businesses by removing barriers and negotiating trade deals, which can lead to practical opportunities opening up.
Barney provided some insightful UK medtech sector statistics. See them in the slide below.
Despite the UK having an innovative, productive, and fast-growing medtech sector, UK medtech exports are low relative to international comparators, he said. The UK imports more than it exports.
The key point from Barney’s presentation is that the DBT provides practical advice and support to SMEs to help them grow and export, which involves non-stop engagement. Barney outlined some of the practical support available to SMEs in the slide below.
Barney said: “We will competitively recruit between 10 and 14 companies, which will be UK SMEs that have got something competitive that we think has a chance of being successful in an overseas market.
“For example, I’m flying to Saudi Arabia with about 10 companies, which we recruited from across the assistive tech and medtech sectors, and we will use the convening power of the British Embassy to get them into rooms they wouldn’t otherwise get into.”
Importantly for SMEs, DBT has a network of international trade advisers across the south, midlands, and north of England, Barney explained. These advisers provide businesses with free and impartial export support. Additionally, they can help firms develop their export strategy, access masterclasses, link firms to specialist export advisers, and help firms make the most of DBT’s global network so they can grow their business overseas.
DBT’s overseas network spans over 100 markets with a global reach in more than 170 countries. These include Canada, the US, Germany, UAE, Japan, Spain, New Zealand, China, and more.
Barney added: “DBT has embedded staff in most of the markets you’re likely to care about, and certainly the large ones. These will be, in many cases, specialists who know the sector in their country. They will often be locally engaged.”