CEO Update: Monday 13 July

As we communicated in last week’s Newscast, the government has published guidance documents which offer a certain amount of clarity on how life sciences companies will be able to operate during an implementation period. I’d encourage you to look at these if you have not already done so. BIA Member Cancer Research UK has also published a policy statement on the future of clinical trials as the UK leaves the EU, which gives an insight into just some of the concerns delays at the borders may cause. Clinical trials to treat neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive cancer most often affecting babies and children, involve the use of iodine-124, a radioactive material. The iodine is used as an investigational medicinal product (IMP) and has a half life of 4.2 days and must be administered within 24 hours of the IMP being manufactured. Any stalling at borders could mean the radioactive yield of the material would be too low to proceed. This is just one of a myriad example of complex questions facing the life sciences sector whilst we wait for further clarity about the movement of medicines post-Brexit. Be sure to tune in to our Brexit webinar this Friday 17 August where myself and Laura will be briefing you on the latest. 

BIA member Alnylam UK had great news last week when their drug patisiran-LNP, an investigational RNAi therapeutic for the treatment hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (hATTR amyloidosis) received a positive scientific opinion through the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS). UK patients with hATTR amyloidosis should now be able to access the drug before it is granted marketing authorisation from the European Comission. hATTR amyloidosis is an inherited, progressively debilitating, and often fatal disease, so this development is positive news for patients. The aim of EAMS is to speed up access to medicines for patients with conditions which have a high degree of unmet medical need, so it’s great to see the scheme having an impact here.


Last week saw the opening of the next round of the Biomedical Catalyst, for which the BIA has long campaigned. In this competition SMEs can apply for a share of up to £5M in the primer award competition and up to £10M in the later stage competition. The government published guidance last week detailing what exactly the competition is, and how to apply. This is valuable for specific information about competition themes, types of research and innovation covered and also for success stories from previous grant holders. 

In further funding news, the Chancellor Phillip Hammond announced on August 10 that the high tech “Catapult” hubs are to receive an additional £780m in funding. This includes a £70m injection for the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult in Stevenage and London. The Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult’s main purpose is to remove barriers to innovation for the technologies being produced, and to try to improve the large-scale manufacture of Cell and Gene Therapy products. These products can currently be made on a patient by patient basis but scaling up manufacture has proven to be a challenge. Extra funding will provide a significant boost to this important work.

As many of you know, this year saw the launch of our new China Special Interest Group, to provide a more focused approach to helping our members learn about opportunities in China. To expand this even further, we have decided to support a UK track at the Biocentury China Healthcare Summit on 12 – 14 November in Shanghai, enabling four of our members to present to a targeted Chinese investment community. I will be heading out to Hong Kong first and then on to Shanghai for the conference. With the help of DIT we are planning to offer an extra evening of networking drinks and a tour of the local AstraZeneca Shanghai Innovation Centre and Science Park to all UK delegates that are attending the conference. If you are interested in exploring opportunities in China, through investment or collaborations, this is an ideal opportunity to take that step with the support of the BIA, DIT and Biocentury. BIA member discounts are available for the conference, along with invites to the extra activities, you can email Alex, our Events Producer, for more details. Please let us know if you are already attending the conference, we look forward to seeing our members there. 

Finally, the BIA policy and public affairs team are busy organising our party conference activity. We will be at the Lib Dem, Labour, Conservative and SNP conferences this year. In collaboration with the ABPI and BIVDA, we will be holding breakfast roundtable events at both Labour and Conservative to reflect on 70 years of innovation in the NHS and what the future of healthcare might look like. A senior-level audience from the drug discovery and development, medical technology, in vitro diagnostics and medical research charity communities, as well as the healthcare sector, will come together to discuss the key opportunities and challenges facing UK life science companies and what they might mean for the future success of the NHS. If you are going to the party conferences and would like to meet with the BIA team and/or attend our roundtables please contact Rachael Stewart, BIA’s Policy and Public Affairs Manager.