Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Chief executive Peter Chambre accepted the coveted accolade from guest speaker Dr Mary Archer at a gala dinner in Cambridge which serial entrepreneur Dr Hermann Hauser described as “the best social and business event in the Cambridge calendar.”

Chambre spoke of his pride at a Cambridge company exploiting Cambridge science to such telling effect in the global commercial arena.

CAT isolated and optimised the drug and for that vital groundfloor work receives royalties from US pharma giant Abbott, which developed the drug and markets it.

Chambre said: “This is a major milestone for CAT. HUMIRA is an important product candidate for us and we are delighted that it reached blockbuster status.

“The success of HUMIRA is vital to CATs progress as a product-based biopharmaceutical business and we look forward to further success in 2006 as Abbott continues to expand the range of approved indications.”

Abbott announced $1.4bn worldwide sales for HUMIRA, ahead of the forecast figure of more than $1.3bn. In a further boost, Abbott said it expected sales next year to top $1.9bn.

CAT became only the second biotech company to win the Business of the Year award, beating off strong competition from CSR, AVEVA, Sepura, Abcam, e2V technologies, QM Group and a host of other businesses from the strongest shortlist ever assembled in the competition.

CSR, Business of the Year for the last two years, won the Quoted Company of the Year Award after a storming 12 months with record revenues, profits, cash flow and earnings in 2005 – the year the firm became Cambridge’s third billion pound company.

CSR secured over 460 new Bluetooth designs, 43 per cent in handsets or headsets (2004: 346 and 31 per cent) and shipped over 150 million Bluetooth units.

Revenues for the 12 months ended December 30 were up 92 per cent to £279.5m (£145.4m) and pre-tax profit up 94 per cent to £65.7m (£33.9m).

AVEVA, one of the world’s leading providers of engineering data and design IT systems, won the Growth & Expansion Award after another sensational year and is set for further progress internationally.

Chief executive Richard Longdon said AVEVA was a rarity - a company with a Cambridge headquarters but whose revenues were predominantly generated overseas.

The company has just secured further success in China. Two of China’s largest private shipbuilders can now rely on the design and production solutions of AVEVA following a deal struck with New Century Shipbuilding (NCS).

AVEVA boosted interim revenues 21 per cent to £29m to the end of September. Pre-tax profit was up to £4.4m from £2.8m year-on-year. The group, which now has a market cap of £180m, also reported excellent cash generation with net cash of £17.8m (2004: £9.3m).

Owlstone Nanotech, developer of an innovative gas sensor with a host of potentially lucrative applications, won the Innovation Award.

The company, bidding for a NASDAQ float that would value the business at $100m. Of the many defence and homeland applications, screening for explosive and chemical attacks, one of the most recent to be unveiled by the company is cargo screening.

Online antibody retailer Abcam won the Private Company of the Year Award, although it floated on the London exchange shortly after entry for these Awards closed.

Chief executive Jonathan Milner winged in from Taiwan to collect the Steuben crystal obelisk.

Abcam sales in the half year to December 31 increased 63 per cent to £8.3m and pre-tax profits increased 49 per cent to £2.1m.

Sepura, which designs and manufactures digital radio systems for the emergency services and armed forces, won the International Trade Award.

In the last few months alone, Sepura has delivered its 250,000th radio to the world's largest transportation company, Russian Railways; stengthened its presence in Germany through a partnership agreement with renowned systems integrator BESCom Elektronik GmbH; formed an Italian subsidiary and provided its technology to services spearheading the relief effort in Pakistan in the wake of the earthquake.

The East of England Business Awards, run by Business Weekly, were sponsored by international law firm Eversheds, Big 5 accountancy practice Deloitte, leading bank Lloyds TSB Corporate, UK Trade & Investment, BAA Stansted and Opportunity Peterborough.