Covid-19 has ushered in a new era of urgent innovation and with it, a new way of working and collaborating. In this podcast, Life Sciences Hub Wales’ Deputy Chair Chris Martin hears from two people at the heart of this response.

Pryderi ap Rhisiart - managing director of the Menai Science Park, M-Sparc on Anglesey - discusses the pioneering work that has been taking place there to tackle the pandemic:

“The Covid pandemic meant we had to work together, pulling people from different sectors and businesses together, resulting in new innovation…. And the whole community is driving it forward. It’s been quite something to witness it and I’m proud to be in the middle of it,” said Pryderi.

Amongst a number of new products which have been devised there is a device for opening doors using elbows, a police drone and a revolutionary virus-killing mask or snood.

The latter was the brainchild of Paul Hope, founder of Virustatic Ltd. The snoods have been scientifically proven in laboratory tests as effective against SARS-CoV-2 at a cellular level. Since March the company has ramped up the production from a weekly run of 40,000 to 400,000 a week.

Lucy Hope - Paul’s daughter - is communications director at Virustatic tells us more on the podcast: “Being in Wales and based in M-Sparc...experiencing the willingness to collaborate and innovate together because of the adversity, is like nothing we have ever experienced before.”