Scottish female-led pharmaceutical business grows globally  

Established in 2017, Cheemia works with pharmaceutical clients looking to supply the NHS. It provides knowledge and facilitates connections, to create relationships that generate efficiency savings for the NHS while increasing patient access to quality medicine.

How Business Gateway has helped

Founder Mehrnaz Campbell, a former nurse who has worked within the pharmaceuticals industry for 28 years, had an idea to channel her medical expertise into an independent consultancy service.  

Mehrnaz contacted Business Gateway for advice and support where she was able to refine her business strategy, get advice on funding and access the ‘Gateway to Investment’ programme, which focuses on equity funding and investment and helps build the skills and confidence required to pitch and negotiate with investors. 

Business Gateway also facilitated several introductions for Mehrnaz including access to the Women in Business programme, allowing her to meet other business owners and field experts, which have been critical for developing and expanding her network.  

Cheemia has grown from an independent start-up to a successful multi-award-winning business and Mehrnaz, who now operates the business remotely from the United States, plans to continue expanding the business globally.  

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mehrnaz created and launched a remote sales engagement training platform, Cheemia ReSET, to help pharmaceutical sales teams to adapt to remote working and gain confidence in using digital channels.    

She worked closely with Business Gateway accessing support through DigitalBoost to get 1:1 support from a digital specialist to develop the website, design and digital marketing. 

This has already resulted in significant growth for the business, allowing Mehrnaz to grow her team and sell the training platform globally.   

Mehrnaz Campbell, Founder and CEO of Cheemia, said: “After a long career in the pharmaceutical industry, I spotted an opportunity to build connections and help multiple businesses succeed by operating independently. Starting on your own can be daunting with so much to consider, so the support of Business Gateway has been vital.  

“I was always keen to keep expanding Cheemia and lockdown provided an opportunity to diversify our offering, launching Cheemia ReSET to meet the needs of the Pharmaceutical Sales teams and support them with adoption of digital channels. The cloud-based system has been a great success, winning ‘Top Remote Work Tech Solution Provider’ at the CIO Applications Europe Awards 2021, and has been an important tool for our global growth.”