April’s London Networking Breakfast

Last Wednesday, over 110 delegates from across the sector descended on the London offices of Herbert Smith Freehills for the latest BIA Networking Breakfast. Coinciding with World Parkinson’s Day 2018, the event was fittingly themed around exploring new patient-centric funding models for accelerating cures.

After making their way through the morning London fog, the attendees began the event at 8:30 am with networking, breakfast and, most importantly, coffee. 

Over the course of the first hour, delegates had an opportunity to catch up with old friends, and to make new business contacts with colleagues from across the world of biotech. This was followed by an update on the BIA’s recent activity from Pamela Learmonth, BIA Director of Public Affairs and Communications. Pamela brought the room up to speed with BIA’s Brexit campaigning, BIA work around the new Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, and the latest sector finance data published in the BIA/Informa quarterly finance report, published earlier that week. 

Next up was a panel discussion, on the subject of how charities and passion capital can contribute to different biotech funding models and improved business outcomes, chaired by BIA Policy and Projects Manager Dr Martin Turner.  The discussion was hugely insightful, and the panellists did a great job of explaining their perspectives on this complex topic.

Aisling Burnand, CEO of the AMRC, highlighted the increasing impact that charities are having on the UK biotech ecosystem, saying “Patient centricity is changing how we approach research, and charities have been key in driving this change. Over £1.7bn was invested in medical research by charities in 2017 alone.”

Dr Madhu Madhusudhan, Senior Business Manager at LifeArc, emphasised the key role that charities play in catalysing the translation research from bench to bedside, bridging a gap that industry and academia have often struggled with.

Dr Laurence Barker, CBO of the Dementia Discovery Fund, explained the strategy that the DDF uses to drive innovation: “We’ve taken the approach of diversification, looking more broadly into areas and approaches that may have been neglected by industry, to discover new avenues of treatment. We’re rolling up our sleeves and starting our own companies by funding new projects with academic partners, some of which end up maturing into new biotech spin-outs.”

We also heard from Dr Arthur Roach, Director of Research at Parkinson’s UK, who talked about Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech, the drug discovery and development arm of Parkinson’s UK, as an example of charity-driven R&D.

The panel wrapped up with questions from the audience on IP issues, lessons to learn from the USA, and the challenges associated with venture philanthropy – which the panel agreed were primarily around accessing talent and expertise.

We had a fantastic turn out for the event and received great feedback from the attendees. Our next event in this series will be our BIA Networking Lunch in Nottingham on June 18^th, make sure to register here.