W Group alumni U-Ploid Biotechnologies and Calla Lily Clinical Care took home three awards between them at one of the UK's longest-running life sciences awards. Neither was competing in a women's health category.
Women's health won both early-stage company awards at the 18th annual BioUK Awards, held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on 22 October. The awards cover 12 categories across the life sciences. U-Ploid Biotechnologies, which is developing a novel therapeutic for age-related infertility, won Best Start-Up Biotech. Calla Lily Clinical Care won Best Early Stage Medtech and the BioSeed 'One to Watch' Award, making it the only double winner of the night.
It's a result that says as much about where life sciences is heading as it does about the two winners.
The winners
U-Ploid Biotechnologies won the Best Start-Up Biotech Company Award, sponsored by Milton Park. The company is developing a first-in-class therapeutic targeting age-related infertility. As more people start families later, it's an area that affects a growing number of people, yet one that has seen little drug development.
"Age-related decline in fertility is a large and growing unmet need, and it deserves the same scientific ambition as any other therapeutic area," says Dr Jordan Abdi, Co-founder and CEO of U-Ploid. "We're delighted to share this recognition with Calla Lily Clinical Care."
Calla Lily Clinical Care won two awards. The first was the Best Early Stage Medtech Company Award, sponsored by Penningtons Manches Cooper. The second was the BioSeed 'One to Watch' Award, sponsored by EY. The company is the first double winner at the awards since 2023. Calla Lily is a clinical-stage company developing Callavid®, an intravaginal drug-delivery platform. Its lead programmes target threatened miscarriage and IVF, with future applications across oncology, menopause, infection and live biotherapeutics.
For co-founder and chair Dr Lara Zibners, the night was as much about the team as the trophies. "For me personally, it was extra special that our team accepted the awards on Thang's and my behalf," she says, referring to her fellow co-founder and CEO, Thang Vo-Ta. "They are the ones who made this happen, and I'm so pleased they were standing in the spotlight for this recognition."
Why this one matters
The BioUK Awards are not a women's health programme. They are a mainstream life sciences award with an 18-year track record, and this year's other winners included Bicycle Therapeutics, Huma Therapeutics, Mursla Bio and Sitryx Therapeutics.
The winners were chosen by an independent panel of more than 30 judges. The panel included people from Lilly, Ipsen, Eisai, Thermo Fisher Scientific, BDO, Barclays Innovation Banking and Precision for Medicine.
"For too long, women's health has been treated as a specialist corner of the life sciences," says Abdi. "Seeing both early-stage company awards go to women's health companies, chosen by judges from across pharma, investment and professional services, shows how much that is changing."
Zibners puts it more bluntly: "Winning two awards at a mainstream life sciences event is a real coup for women's health. It shows we are not niche."
A bigger stage for women's health
BioUK supports early-stage life sciences companies across all therapy areas, but the organisation says it is making a deliberate effort to bring women's health into the spotlight.
"We recognise the importance of giving women's health innovation greater visibility and have created dedicated opportunities to showcase R&D in this area, including a BioTuesday spotlight evening and dedicated panels and company showcases at BioTrinity, our flagship annual conference in London," says Jane O’Driscoll, Director and Head of Events at BioUK.
"We also encourage women's health companies to enter our annual awards programme and were delighted to celebrate both Calla Lily Clinical Care and U-Ploid at the BioUK Awards in October. Through our events, awards, and wider network, we want to help ensure that companies developing much-needed treatments and diagnostics for women's health have opportunities to showcase their work, connect with investors and industry partners, and gain the recognition and support they deserve."
BioTrinity returns to London on 13 and 14 April 2027.
What it signals
Fertility, pregnancy loss and IVF have historically been treated as hard places to build a business. U-Ploid and Calla Lily are working in exactly these areas, and a panel weighted towards pharma and investors has backed them as the best early-stage companies in the UK this year.
It isn't the first time either company has stood out. Both Calla Lily and U-Ploid have had success at W Group's accelerator programmes with Merck over the past couple of years, and this latest recognition backs up the promise we saw in them then.
This is the shift we want to see: women's health judged on the strength of its science and its commercial potential, alongside every other therapeutic area.
Congratulations to Jordan, Lara, Thang and both teams.
About the BioUK Awards: the BioUK Awards are run by BioUK, a not-for-profit membership network for the UK life sciences industry. 2026 was the 18th year of the awards. Find out more at biouk-awards.com.
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