A FIRM based at Malvern Hills Science Park has been narrowly beaten to a top award.

Memtein was one of 117 entries for Venture Fest, the UK's largest business plan competition, held at Oxford.

Memtein, which uses nanotechnology to help drug research, was set up as a collaboration between Birmingham University and Malvern Cosmeceutics, also based at the science park.

The company was beaten to the £15,000 first prize by a team from Massechusetts Institute of Technology.

Professor Michael Overduin, who led Memtein's presentation, said: "We thought we might have beaten the other five shortlisted companies, but the winner had also won the MIT business plan prize and had spent weeks working on a very persuasive presentation.

"On a positive note, we've attracted a lot of interest from the venture capital funds present and this was exactly what we were seeking to achieve."