In 2024, UK biotech sector raised around £3.5bn – a 94% increase from 2023 – and now biotech sector trade body, the BioIndustry Association (BIA), has published a 10-year vision statement for the sector.
The BIA said the vision is based on 18 months of research and engagement with the industry and its members.
CEO Steve Bates noted that while the UK is a global life sciences leader, it is yet to unlock biotech’s full potential and “a shift in mindset” is required as there is currently “a lack of commercial ambition, plus lingering suspicion within academia and the National Health Service (NHS) of industry’s profit motive.”
Bates said that he believed that this has “contributed to others reaping much of the economic reward from our country’s extraordinary innovations.”
He also said that the UK “must embrace commercial success as core to UK growth, rather than shy away from making money in healthcare and net zero,” adding that there was a need for domestic capital to support the sector.
“If the City of London is not prepared to match the ambition of innovators and the UK government in backing the UK to go for growth, it is time to mandate tax-supported investment vehicles (eg pension funds) to back British success like our life science sector,” he stated.
Indeed, for the cosmetics industry, many of the biotech companies making waves are based in other European countries such as France and Italy, or further afield in the US, Japan and Korea.
Key goals for the vision for 2035
Bates said that for 2035, the BIA envisions a UK biotech sector with “a stronger long-term capital base supporting both early- and later-stage firms,” that would “include more scaled-up companies, more hospitable public markets, a deeper talent pool, and continued global recognition for leadership across research, health/genomics data, clinical infrastructure, and specialist manufacturing.”
The BIA’s vision statement sets out four key goals to reach by 2035.
- To “unlock late-stage capital”, which includes UK pension funds, which the BIA is calling to be mandated to invest in the sector.
- Greater sector awareness and more tailored educational programs to develop homegrown talent, and by attracting overseas experts to the UK.
- Existing strengths such as health data, dynamic tech and biotech start-up hubs, regulatory and legal expertise, and specialist manufacturing must be further promoted.
- More collaboration needed among stakeholders at home and abroad.
In the UK, the biotech sector is centred around the ‘golden triangle’, which is based between the university cities of Cambridge and Oxford and the capital, London. The sector is also growing in Dublin in Ireland.
