What Can Be Done To Accelerate The Growth Of Life Sciences?

The life science industry has played a tremendous part in helping millions of people over the past two years, and the government has noticed.

In July, they posted their Life Sciences Vision documentation, which highlighted their grand plans for the industry over the next ten years.

Whilst the vision document is broad, it consists of four main areas of development for the life sciences industry:

• Taking advantage of the UK’s research infrastructure as well as accessing health and genomic data.
• Improve access to innovation across the NHS.
• Create the perfect environment for life science businesses to begin, to grow and to be invested in.
• Address major global healthcare challenges.

In order to accomplish all of this, the government is making £1bn available to help life science marketing, sales and initial research, which can be vital to help with fields such as time-intensive drug development.

With this in mind, here are the life science industry’s main priorities in order to further boost the growth of an exciting industry.

Capital Investment

Life sciences are not like other industries. Lean startup principles that focus on minimum viable products and quickly getting to market irrespective of quality are impossible given how long research and development takes to produce medicines, medical aids and medtech.

Part of this is the result of capital availability, a lack of which has seen many UK life sciences companies rely on US investment and eventually relocate closer to their investors overseas.

Speed Up Approval

The timespan for medications to receive approval from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) varies wildly, from a matter of months to over ten years at times.

This can cause issues not only for patients awaiting a new treatment but also to investors who will only see a return once the drug is on the market.

The government aims to assist with this by taking advantage of NHS data to aid in research and clinical trials, as well as establishing an integrated licensing and access pathway to cut the time it takes for new medicines to make it into the hands of patients.

Developing Skills

Having skilled life science professionals is key to any potential levelling-up strategy, and so a key part of the growth of the industry is ensuring that people have as many pathways as possible to enter the fast-paced industry.

Part of this will be providing potential startup founders with the knowledge and skills to become so-called ‘clinical entrepreneurs’ that have the particular skills needed to run an effective life science business.

The other half will come from the ground floor, developing life science apprentices out of school leavers, providing skills, training and qualifications to become major parts of the future of the industry.

Speeding Up Construction

Much of the proposed plans rely on infrastructure, some of which will be built out from the systems created during the greatest public health crisis facing the country in a century.

The vision document specifically looks at the creation of specialist hubs that would appear across England, with genomics hub in Manchester and a diagnostic research centre in Liverpool being named as examples.

This will rely on upgrading existing life science assets and efficiently building new manufacturing hubs for a rapidly growing industry.