70 New Businesses Created Via Life Sciences Incubator
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MediCity in Glasgow, a life sciences incubator and accelerator, has revealed that it’s helped to create 70 new life sciences and med-tech companies in the past five years.
Insider revealed that the incubator has provided a substantial boost to Scotland’s now-thriving life sciences sector, helping to create 201 new jobs and attracting more than £26 million in private investment.
MediCity has taken an interesting approach to helping life science businesses get off the ground, the news provider explained, focusing its efforts on “coaching evidence-based entrepreneurship”. It has also provided a space for scientists to explore the commercial viability of their ideas without making substantial upfront investments.
The success of the MediCity model has seen similar incubators rolled out across other parts of the UK.
BioCity was behind the incubator and instrumental in adapting the lean start-up methodology, which has been used by businesses all over the world, to make it specific for the life sciences sector.
Speaking to the news provider, Colin Roberts, venture development director of BioCity Group, explained that MediCity has helped businesses across the medtech, health tech, digital health and healthcare and wellness sectors get started.
“By applying scientific rigour to the business process, residents are taught to revise, adjust and fine tune their approach to commercialisation as they would when driving forward the science behind their product,” Mr Roberts said.
The government invested £1 million in MediCity when it was established in 2015, with the figures in terms of the new businesses created and the output of the companies indicating that this was certainly a worthwhile investment in the Glasgow region.
It’s not only in Scotland where the UK’s life sciences sector has been performing well. Cambridge Network recently pointed out that the industry has “risen to the challenges posed by Covid-19 with exceptional innovation and collaboration across industry, clinicians, the NHS, academia and government”.
The publication highlighted the BioBeat annual Movers and Shakers in Biobusiness report, which was recently released and is now in its seventh year.
It picks out 30 leaders in the UK’s bioscience sector who have been particularly resourceful in the past 12 months.
Many of those featured in this year’s report have played an important role in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The theme of the 2020 report is “Connection for Strength” and women in the sector have taken particularly high profile positions within the study.
Chair of the UK Vaccine Task Force, trustee of the Francis Crick Institute and managing partner at SV Health Investors Kate Bingham told the publication that seeing so many women profiled in this year’s report will help inspire future generations of scientists to enter the sector.
Speaking about the women profiled, she said: “Each has contributed immensely to the UK’s world-class science, retaining talent, driving economic growth and improving patient care through the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.”
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