News that the global population of diabetics has been rising by some 3m a year is troubling - as are World Health Organisation predictions that the number of sufferers will double to 300m by 2025.

Most of this growth will be Type 2 diabetes - caused principally by obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, rather than genetic factors. This was reported for the first time in children last month.

As long as these trends continue, however, there will be healthy business opportunities for the biotechnology companies that monitor blood glucose levels.

Two such companies - MediSense UK and Inverness Medical - have won Queen's awards for international trade this year.

So fast-growing is their area of activity that both companies, though UK-based, have been snapped up by US parents from the "big pharma" community of the world's largest pharmaceuticals groups.

MediSense, the bigger of the two, is now part of Abbott Laboratories, while Inverness Medical has just been bought by Johnson & Johnson.

MediSense has more than tripled staff numbers and increased annual sales by 140 per cent over six years to £150m.

Inverness has won its award for booking a three-year, 400 per cent increase in overseas sales to £50m.

Also successful in this year's awards were companies that test drugs for the pharmaceuticals industr y.

Cognitive Drug Research, set up in 1986, is wholly owned by Professor Keith Wesnes, formerly of Guy's Hospital and Reading University.

Although small - profits are around £45,000 on turnover of £2.4m - the company is one of the few in the world that assesses the effects of new medicines on mental faculties.

"We test patients in clinical trials before and after they take a drug for the effect on memory, attention span and so on," Prof Wesnes explains.

CDR looks at side-effects such as drowsiness associated with new medicines - and the dangers of combining a medicine with other substances.

"But our most exciting work is in drugs that aim to bring improvement in mental faculties, such as drugs to treat Alzheimer's."

CDR works with 50 of the world's drug companies, testing 30 new drugs a year.

Medeval works in the more traditional area of conducting clinical trials and assessing new drugs for safety and efficacy.

It was gradually spun out from the University of Manchester, with management finally buying out ownership for £3m - backed by funding from 3i and Bank of Scotland - in 1998. Following a doubling of its export earnings over the past three years, the company now generates £1m of profit on £9.25m of turnover, 70 per cent of which is generated outside the UK.

Hammersmith Medicines Research conducts similar contract research work, having trebled its workforce and overseas earnings in four years.

The awards panel hasn't gone as far as to sanction research work that involves the controversial area of animal testing. Neither Medeval nor HMR operates in this so-called "pre-clinical" area.

Medeval says its way of operating can actually minimise the work on animals that has to be carried out by other testing companies. "A lot of models have been seen as a way to minimise animal experiments," says Dr Stephen Toon, chief executive.

Overall, the healthcare sector was represented by 15 winners across the international trade and innovation categories of the Queen's Awards - half as many again as last year.

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