BIA responds to the Treasury’s Patient Capital Review

BIA responds to the Treasury’s Patient Capital Review

The BIA has today (Friday 22 September) welcomed the government’s proposal to establish a new National Investment Fund to support the growth of innovative UK bioscience companies. The fund could potentially invest billions of pounds alongside private investors over the coming years to provide long-term finance for new and scaling companies.                        

The BIA’s comments were made in its submission to the Patient Capital Review consultation. The BIA called for:              

• The National Innovation Fund to support a diversity of privately-managed sector-specific investment funds

• Incentives, regulatory changes and a communications campaign to encourage pension funds to back the UK’s innovative industries

• Support to expand the number of UK-based fund managers with expertise in the life sciences

• Tax incentives to encourage greater investment in scaling businesses

• A new Investor Visa Fund to channel money from high-net worth individuals emigrating to the UK into innovative growing companies                         

BIA CEO Steve Bates said:                         

“The UK has the world-leading science and commercial skills to truly change and improve the world in the 21st Century. Exciting breakthroughs are happening almost every day in cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineering biology.                        

“UK bioscience companies have global ambitions but have long-lacked the domestic financial support they need to scale and take on their US and Asian rivals. It’s great to see the government taking this issue seriously and willing to work with industry to address it through the Patient Capital Review. Critically, we need to open up opportunities for pension funds and other large investors to support the growth of innovative UK businesses. The proposed National Innovation Fund is an exciting and promising action that the government should take forward.                                

"This will secure greater economic activity and support the creation of high value sustainable jobs across the UK whilst helping to address the deficits that many of our pension funds are facing. Our submission sets out a series of practical measures that alongside the forthcoming sector deal for life sciences will enable the UK to become the leading place in the world to discover and develop new therapies and technologies, and scale businesses to a global level to capture their full economic potential.”

You can download the full submission from the BIA website here.

Ends

Notes to Editors

Contact: Ed Sexton, BIA Media Relations Manager, 0207 630 2196 [email protected]

About the BIA

Established over 25 years ago at the infancy of biotechnology, the BioIndustry Association (BIA) is the trade association for innovative life sciences in the UK. Our goal is to secure the UK's position as a global hub and as the best location for innovative research and commercialisation, enabling our world-leading research base to deliver healthcare solutions that can truly make a difference to people's lives.