Hart looks to grow national profile

Hart Biologicals, the Hartlepool based business that makes biological reagents used to investigate blood clotting disorders, has appointed Onyx Health to undertake a national PR programme.

Onyx’s brief is to demonstrate to healthcare providers the cost saving advantages of Hart Biologicals’ anti-coagulation monitoring systems. The company claims its Thrombi-Stat INR testing system, used to monitor how quickly a patient’s blood clots, could save the NHS £40m if used nationally.

Onyx Health’s campaign will target purchasing decision makers in hospitals and primary care and will also focus on organisations submitting tenders to undertake community based anti-coagulation testing.

“As the time is right to demonstrate to the NHS the real cost savings that could be made with our testing systems, we decided to appoint Onyx Health to work on this programme with us as we wanted to work with a communications agency that had the in-depth healthcare knowledge and the expertise to support us in the UK and also globally, as our testing systems can be used in any setting anywhere in the world,” said Alby Pattison, founder and managing director of Hart Biologicals.

Onyx Health was founded by Karen Winterhalter, who relocated the business from London to the North East in 2010 to support the growing life science business in the region. The company, now based in Durham, largely works with pharmaceutical, device and diagnostic companies who have a product they want to market to healthcare providers and consumers.

Winterhalter said:  “We are delighted that Hart Biologicals chose to work with us and hope this is only one of many successful campaigns we can undertake for healthcare businesses in the North East.”

Hart Biologicals has an annual turnover of more than £1m, of which more than 70% is exports to markets all over the world.