INJECTION pens and needles for diabetes patients have netted a Woodstock firm a Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Medical devices designer and manufacturer Owen Mumford was the only Oxfordshire company named in this year’s Awards, announced on the Queen’s birthday last week {April 21}.

The firm was recognised in the Innovation category for its ‘all-in-one’ device which makes it easier to fit a new needle and dispose of the old one in a more responsible way.

Sales of the product have jumped 52 per cent during the past two years.

Much of the growth is due to a rise in the number of people with diabetes, who need pen needles to inject insulin.

Owen Mumford’s winning design has two chambers, one containing a new pen needle and another to store an old one.

This encourages diabetes sufferers to put in a new needle for each injection and keep hold of an old one, until they can dispose of it properly.

A study by Owen Mumford showed that the new ‘all-in-one’ device made patients 61 per cent more likely to use a new needle for each injection.

Owen Mumford was set up as a precision engineering business in 1952 by Ivan Owen and John Mumford and run from a small lock-up in Oxford.

Today it employs 540 people and exports 85 per cent of its products to 60 countries.

Managing director Jarl Severn said: “Receiving our Queen’s Award for Innovation is particularly rewarding, as it highlights how everything we do at Owen Mumford is about making a world of difference.

“Through our work, we seek to improve quality of life, encourage adherence to treatment and reduce healthcare costs.”

Earlier this month, Owen Mumford opened a manufacturing plant in Malaysia, its first major plant outside the UK.

The firm, also known for devices to check blood sugar levels and aids for eye care, works with pharmaceutical firms, healthcare workers and patients to develop products.

MP for Witney and West Oxfordshire Robert Courts visited the firm’s offices at the beginning of this month.

He toured the R&D centre, test lab, hi-tech 3D printers used to produce prototype medical devices and main manufacturing facilities.

This is not the firm’s first Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

In 1999, it received a Queen’s Award for Export and in 2008 it won two – for Innovation and International Trade.

The solitary win was a change in fortune for Oxfordshire’s business community.

Seven firms won Queen’s Awards last year and the same number the previous year.