With a goal of boosting its life sciences economy into the top three of the global rankings by 2035, the U.K. government is laying out six specific areas of focus to bolster its growth in the industry.
The interventions (PDF) come via the government’s new “Modern Industrial Strategy,” which prioritizes eight high-growth sectors and builds on a previous “Invest 2035” plan that was floated last year.
Acknowledging that the “approaches of recent decades have not worked,” as the U.K. has often found itself “too over-regulated and overburdened to take advantage” of transformative technologies, the government has decided it's high time for a “targeted, long-term plan” for its highest-growth sectors, according to the document.
For the life sciences sector, the new initiatives are meant to work in concert with the upcoming 10-year plan for the National Health Service (NHS). In all, the U.K. aims to become Europe’s leading life sciences economy by 2030 and the third “most important” life sciences economy worldwide by 2035, behind the U.S. and China.
To support the mission, the government is adding to its previous 600 million pound sterling ($808 million) investment in a health data research service, with more than 650 million pounds ($876 million) slated to go toward Genomics England over five years. The government has also earmarked up to 354 million pounds ($477 million) for health data and research program Our Future Health, at least 30 million pounds ($40 million) for preclinical infrastructure related to translational research networks and up to 20 million pounds ($27 million) for the UK BioBank, a large biomedical database.
It's a more detailed presentation of the 10-year R&D funding playbook unveiled last month and is expected to be supported by government spending of more than 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion), along with investments from UK Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the strategy document noted.
The government outlined six specific goals of its investments, including creating the world’s “most advanced, secure and AI-ready health data platform,” cutting trial approval times to less than 150 days and streamlining market access by turning the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency into a “faster, more agile” regulator that gives drugmakers a clearer route to the market through parallel approvals from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
The framework also includes plans to create a clearer path for medtech products and notes the 520 million pound ($701 million) investment previously debuted for the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund to bring “globally mobile” manufacturing investments to the U.K.
Finally, the U.K. looks to boost its industry partnerships, setting a goal to strike at least one major strategic partnership per year with “leading" biopharma companies. High-potential U.K. companies will be supported through a “dedicated support service” meant to help such companies scale up, attract investment and remain firmly planted in the U.K.
BioNTech has already become part of the effort, last month announcing a plan to invest 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) over the next decade to beef up its U.K. R&D base. As part of the project, the government is chipping in up to 129 million pounds ($172 million) in grant money payable over a 10-year span.
The overall strategy has so far gotten a tentative OK by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), which previously called on U.K. politicians to bolster the nation’s healthcare potential.
“This strategy sets out a clear vision for how to grow the UK economy and is rightly focused on many of the key inputs the country needs to get right to create the conditions for success,” ABPI's chief executive Richard Torbett, Ph.D., said in a statement. “The task now must be to move quickly from planning to delivery, rapidly boosting UK attractiveness for investment and returning the country to international competitiveness.”
Still, Torbett and the ABPI hope to see “more detail” in the NHS 10-year plan and consider the U.K.’s progress in embracing the industry’s innovations a “key litmus test for success.”
The 10-year health plan is also being eyed by the U.K. Dementia Research Institute, although its director Siddharthan Chandran, M.D., Ph.D., calls the industrial strategy an “important milestone.”
“The plan rightly demonstrates a strong commitment to long-term investment that will make the most of UK innovations, driving growth across the country. It is right that we forge ahead and double down on our backing for R&D by creating the most attractive environment for innovative research,” Chandran said in a statement.
The 10-year NHS plan in the process of being developed.