Industry Body Welcomes UK Government’s Vision for the Future of Life Sciences

The Life Sciences Sector Vision, published by the United Kingdom’s government on July 7, 2021, sets out a 10-year strategy for the sector to build upon the successes seen in the response to COVID-19, and as a strategy has been welcomed by the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA).

Co-developed by sector businesses and experts, the Life Sciences Vision for the United Kingdom outlines seven critical healthcare missions that will require a collaborative effort to solve. These missions are accelerating studies into dementia treatments, enabling early diagnosis and treatments, maintaining the UK’s position in vaccine development and manufacturing, treating and preventing cardiovascular diseases, reducing mortality and morbidity from respiratory diseases, addressing the underlying biology of aging, and increasing the understanding of mental health conditions.

“We are indebted to the ingenuity of UK life sciences and its pioneers, with the discovery of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the seamless collaboration between our scientists, industry, regulators, and [National Health Service] NHS saving millions of lives during the pandemic. We must make sure this is the norm and use this new way of working to search for life-changing breakthroughs against diseases such as cancer, dementia, and obesity, as we have done with COVID,” said Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, in a government press release. “That’s why we are setting out our new Life Sciences Vision to bottle the formula we have developed to tackle COVID and improve health outcomes for patients across the board in the UK, and secure jobs and investment in the process as we build back better.”

Building upon the successes of the UK Vaccines Taskforce, a Life Science Scale Up Taskforce, which was recommended by the BIA, will be taken forward through the new strategy. The new taskforce will develop recommendations on issues that inhibit scale-up and growth.

“The BIA’s focus will be to increase the expert pool of UK-based capital needed for innovative UK life science firms to grow to scale,” said Steve Bates, CEO of the BIA in a July 6, 2021 press release. “This will enable UK investors and pension savers, to secure the economic benefit from this burgeoning golden age for UK life sciences while at the same time enabling NHS patients to secure the health benefit of global biotech innovation.”

Sources: UK Gov, BIA