Two Letchworth-based winners of a top business award have met the Queen at a Buckingham Palace reception.

Dianne Lee and Kevin Judges, directors of Dunhams Lane consultancy firm Dianne Lee Regulatory Consultancy, enjoyed a few words with Her Majesty at a reception for the winners of this year’s Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.

DLRC – which works with clients in the United States, Australia, Switzerland and the European Union – won a Queen’s Award for international trade in recognition of outstanding overseas sales growth over six years.

Ms Lee told the Comet: “Meeting the Queen was something we never thought would happen to us.

“She’s an amazing person – having already had two engagements on the day, she then met a couple of hundred business leaders and was able to engage on so many levels, looking interested in everything that we do.”

DLRC, which was formed in 2005, supports multinational pharmaceutical companies through the complex process of getting marketing authorisations for medicines and approvals for clinical trials.

Explaining its role, Ms Lee said: “A lot of our work is involved in getting US companies that are developing innovative medicines to come to the EU, which currently includes the UK.

“Some US companies are developing innovative medicines, but they find it hard to reach out beyond the US borders – which, unless another company in the EU does a deal with them, means that they are not going to bring that product here, or that patients will have to wait until the product is fully developed.

“For some cancer patients the only option for treatment, once all other drugs have been tried, is to be treated in a clinical trial. So it’s really important to make sure these companies can navigate their way through the UK and EU legislation on developing medicines to give those over here the chance of benefitting from something that might give them more time.”

The firm, which in November 2016 won Employer of the Year at the Comet-backed Hertfordshire Business Awards, is now permitted to use the Queen’s Award emblem for five years as a symbol of this success.

Michelle Blake, one of the firm’s 22 employees, said: “DLRC is extremely proud and thrilled to have our accomplishments recognised by this award.”

To find out more see dlrc.co.uk.