A little-known specialist medical communications company operating globally from Dunedin is the first entry for the Westpac Otago Chamber of Commerce's two-yearly business awards.
Kainic Medical Communications moved to Dunedin from Wellington 18 months ago, with managing director Blair Hesp building the business to five employees. It has major clients in seven countries across four continents.
Entries for the Westpac business awards are open until August 25. Judging takes place in September-October, and the winners will be announced on November 18, in the Dunedin Town Hall.
Last year, there were more than 120 finalists and the ultimate award was won by Oamaru's Whitestone Cheese.
Kainic is entered in the services and ethics divisions of the awards, of which there are 14 divisions in all.
Mr Hesp (35), who gained his pharmacology degree and PhD from the University of Otago, moved to Dunedin from Wellington with his family for several reasons, having earlier been based in the UK. There he was introduced to the "med comms'' sector while working in marketing.
He said Dunedin was inviting with its Gigatown offering. Commercial properties were cheaper, the lifestyle was attractive and a major client, cancer diagnostic company Pacific Edge, was headquartered here.
Kainic was also able to work closely with the university's emerging pharmacology students, he said.
While writing highly technical medical material from data for multinational companies with turnover of billions of dollars, Kainic also supplies written work for doctors, patients, listed companies and even government departments.
"It can be a wide audience. We have to make complicated science easy to understand, to facilitate between doctors and patients,'' he said.
"There's a huge ethical element there to make sure data gets published,'' Mr Hesp said.
The difference of time zones with global clients often worked in Kainic's favour. Short-notice requests could be dealt with overnight, meaning the finished communication would be waiting for clients when they returned to work the next day.
Otago Chamber of Commerce president Ali Copeman said Kainic was a good example of a "weightless exporter'', which exports its IT/electronic work, while at the same time contributing to the local economy.
Kainic runs an annual scholarship programme with Otago university's pharmacology department, giving students the opportunity to travel to some of the largest medical conferences.
