Biopharmaceuticals

UK researchers have played a key role in global science endeavours and breakthroughs, such as the Human Genome Project, with the UK’s Wellcome Sanger Institute leading nearly a third of the effort. The UK has also led on many ground-breaking world-first research efforts, such as the formation of the UK Biobank, the National Institute for Health Research, and the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Businesses in the UK life sciences industry generated £108.1 billion in turnover in 2021/22. The number of operational businesses was 6,850 and they employed 282,000 people across the UK.

Biopharmaceuticals is a high-growth sector with a $1.5 trillion global market. This has been driven by growth and opportunities in drug discovery, advanced therapeutics, research and development (R&D) services, data and real-world evidence, bioprocessing and bioengineering, and AI applications in R&D and healthcare.

The Biopharma sector accounted for 68% of the total turnover in the UK’s life sciences sector in 2022. The sector is research-intensive and 23 of the top 100 global R&D spenders are in the biopharmaceutical sector. Pharmaceutical manufacturing GVA in the UK was $17.1 billion in 2020. The sector has undergone rapid growth and change post-pandemic.

The UK’s innovative life sciences and biotech sector has already raised investment of £1.98 billion in Q1 and Q2 2024, up from £1.80 billion raised last year.

Government and industry aim to capitalise on the UK’s existing competitive advantages, by setting and taking action to make the UK the home of medical innovation, supporting higher risk science, and building on the UK’s world-class clinical research environment.

Opportunity highlights

Vaccines

The UK is a vital market for global vaccine R&D and manufacturing. This follows on from a rich history of vaccine expertise, with Edward Jenner developing the first vaccine for smallpox in 1853.

The industry has been consistently growing since 2000 and has benefited from significant further investments over the last few years.

The UK has significant expertise in immunology, vaccinology, novel trials and delivery of vaccination programmes, and is one of the largest funders of GAVI, the Global Vaccine Alliance.

The UK Vaccine Taskforce, established at the start of the covid pandemic, will also leave a legacy of investment and capability for future pandemics and for wider vaccine development, manufacturing, and delivery.

Biologics

Despite increased production cost compared to small molecules, the biologics subsector is receiving sustained interest due to the promise it shows in providing treatments for a wide variety of illnesses.

The UK continues to lead the way for biologics development, having discovered a number of the top selling biologics medicines and developed platforms for antibody discovery. The Centre for Process Innovation, National Biologics Manufacturing Centre and National Horizons Centre are also helping to solve industry production challenges, improve efficiency, and offer high quality training for the workforce.

The sector is in a very strong position heading into the new decade, with a 1,000% increase in life sciences investment since 2012.

Small molecules

A mainstay in the pharmaceutical industry, small molecules continue to have distinct advantages and have seen a boost in growth due to expanded applications and accelerating technological advancements.

The UK also has a track record of being able to make complex medicines at high quality, and has established national government funded infrastructure ready to work with businesses, such as the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre.

Cell and gene therapies

The UK has grown the leading cell and gene therapy cluster in Europe, and the largest outside of the US. These advanced therapies offer immense promise as treatments or even cures for a wide range of diseases.

There have been several collaborative initiatives led by the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult to support the continued growth of the sector. These collaborations have included the Advanced Therapy Treatment Centres (ATTC) Network to support NHS readiness for the adoption and use of cell and gene therapies.

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult has also coordinated the Advanced Therapies Apprenticeship Community (ATAC), which has made significant progress in addressing the skills gap in the UK.

Cell and gene therapy developers are located across the UK, with hotpots in the Golden Triangle of London, Stevenage, Cambridge and Oxford. There are also a number of developers headquartered in cities across the north of the UK including in Edinburgh, Manchester, Sheffield and York.

The Cell and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee (CGTAC) was established to highlight the value of cell and gene therapies to patients and the wider UK economy and to promote the UK’s global role in delivering these transformative treatments and the innovative science behind them.

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult is an independent innovation and technology organisation committed to the advancement of cell and gene therapies and supports 202 projects.

The NHS was the first health system in Europe to approve CAR-T therapy, one of the fastest commercial approvals in its more than 70 year history. The UK also continues to be the leading destination in Europe for clinical trials in cell and gene therapy, with 84 drugs in clinical development as of October 2023.

Precision medicine

Precision medicine has the potential to revolutionise the medical landscape. UK-led technological breakthroughs in genomics are accelerating cost reductions and expanding methods of applications which offer tremendous opportunities.

The UK’s genomics sector has already become world-leading, building upon the heritage of Franklin, Watson, Crick, and later the Human Genome Project, delivered by the Wellcome Sanger Institute around the year 2000 and most recently the 100,000 Genomes Project delivered by Genomics England.

Now, with more start-ups and scale-ups in the genomics space than ever before, we are on the cusp of this technology becoming one that is embedded within our healthcare system to improve patients’ lives.

The NHS is the first in the world to introduce a genomic medicine service at scale and to apply whole genome sequencing in routine clinical care.

Key UK assets

Golden triangle

Cambridge, London and Oxford mark the corners of the UK’s world renowned “golden triangle” for life sciences. The region is home to over 3,700 companies, over 193,000 employees and 19 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies, as well as top ranked global universities for life sciences and health sciences.

North of England

The North of England competes globally by offering lower costs and a consistently high-quality labour force and facilities. Activity is clustered around Manchester, Liverpool and the North East. The region offers expertise in genomics and biomarker discovery, cell and gene therapies, medicines manufacturing, immunology and digital health.

Midlands

The Midlands offers one of the most concentrated clinical trials clusters in Europe, centred around Birmingham, and carries out the largest number of cancer trials in the UK. The West Midlands is home to one of the UK’s 3 Advanced Therapy Treatment Centres, established to address the challenges of bringing pioneering products to patients.

Scotland

Scotland benefits from an integrated healthcare infrastructure and significant investment to advance R&D for stem cell-based treatments, in-vitro applications and precision medicine. With hot spots in Edinburgh and Glasgow and a vibrant industry cluster and supply chain, as well as growing manufacturing capabilities, Scotland provides a fantastic opportunity for companies.

Wales

Wales has leading global clinical and research expertise in wound healing, neurosciences, oncology and regenerative medicine. It’s particularly strong in precision medicine as it is home to Genomics Partnership Wales and its universities undertake a range of multidisciplinary research alongside strong links with clinical and business partners.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland offers investors very good value for money and a highly connected and collaborative setting, where global companies work with academia, health organisations and government. The region’s cluster of companies have capabilities spanning the whole drug development value chain with particular strengths in biomarker discovery and validation.

R&D capability

Companies benefit from access to world-class universities and life sciences infrastructure including lab space, science parks and manufacturing facilities, as well as incubators and accelerators in which to start up and scale up. A national health research network supports streamlined trials operations, and innovation support is available from the regulator, health technology assessment bodies, and the NHS.

Specialised clusters offer opportunities in high growth subsectors such as precision medicine, cell and gene therapies, vaccine manufacturing and data science. Innovators can connect to R&D opportunities across the UK, and benefit from both national and regional networks that can help to facilitate partnerships.

The UK is a world-leader in R&D capability. This leadership is demonstrated by the number of companies based in the UK, the significant financing the UK-based companies have attracted over the past 5 years, and the high volume of clinical trials taking place in the UK.

A few of the notable UK assets include:

• Medicines Discovery Catapult
• Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult
• National Biologics Manufacturing Centre
• Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre
• Francis Crick Institute
• Rosalind Franklin Institute and Harwell Science and Innovation Campus
• Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Cambridge Biomedical Campus
• National Institute for Health Research

Business and government support

To support the sector, the government has announced ambitious plans for how government, the sector and NHS will work together to make the UK a globally leading location for life science investment and innovation. A strong underlying business environment and agile and innovation-friendly regulation are also key to seizing opportunities in emerging technology areas.

UK Life Sciences Vision

UK Life Sciences Vision sets a 10-year strategy for the sector to build on the successes of our COVID-19 response and accelerate delivery of innovations to patients. The vision outlines 7 critical healthcare missions that government, industry, the NHS, academia and medical research charities will work together on at speed to solve.

The Clinical Research Vision

The Clinical Research Vision outlines the UK’s ambition to remain a leading global destination for cutting-edge clinical research. The vision commits to making the UK a more patient-centred, pro-innovation and digitally-enabled clinical research environment, where research is easier and faster to deliver across all research phases.

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