CEO Update: Monday 16 July

A big thank you to all of the BIA members who joined our 18^th annual Parliament Day last Thursday. Despite the event falling in what has been a tumultuous week for Westminster, it proved a roaring success.

The day was most enjoyable and effective and had the added twist of the government releasing their White Paper on Brexit in the middle of it. The paper was largely positive for our sector, with significant detail on a proposed future relationship on medicine regulation, aligning with the key points we have been consistently advocating for two years.  In terms of science and innovation and R&D funding, the UK proposes a “science and innovation accord” which will provide for UK participation in EU research funding programmes.

This includes both Horizon Europe and the Euratrom Research & Training Programme. There will also be continued cooperation in joint participation networks, and open channels for dialogue between regulators, researchers and experts. We have long argued at the BIA on the importance of brain circulation, so these were welcome additions to see in the White Paper.

You can read our member briefing on the White Paper here.

Parliament Day finished up with our annual Summer Networking Reception, which proves invaluable each year for making business connections and keeping up with colleagues in the biotech sector.

Delegates attended from across the breadth of our member companies, representing the vibrancy and diversity of the sector to a variety of key players at Westminster. Lunch was served in the House of Lords where Lord Drayson celebrated the vibrancy of the UK life science sector. He highlighted his own background in biotech, and drove home the importance of political engagement from businesses to make the most of the talent in the sector.

Westminster continues to debate the Brexit Trade bill this week and MP Phillip Lee has brought together Parliament’s “medical doctors” to table an amendment on regulatory cooperation. The Bill is at report stage at the House of Commons this Tuesday, and Philip’s amendment seeks to introduce a clause which would prioritise as a negotiating objective, the UK’s participation in the EMA post-Brexit, so that patients continue to access the highest standard of medicines and medical products. This is in line with Government’s policy on medicine regulation in the white paper, the Labour Party’s stated policy on this, and it’s what we in industry have been advocating for. It would be great if it was adopted into legislation by the UK parliament. Such a move would send a strong signal to EU negotiators of both the political desire and legal practicality of regulatory cooperation in medicine post Brexit from the UK.  

You can register for our last Brexit webinar before the summer, which we will be holding this Friday, here.

There has been positive news for biotech financing in the last week also, with UK-based VC fund Abingworth announcing that $315M has been raised for its ABV VII fund. The fund will support a wide variety of life science companies at different stages in the UK and overseas, with investments between $15M and $30M.

The UK continues to show it can take innovative approaches to life science funding, with the launch of the $330M “Leap Fund” by the Wellcome Trust to support science that might be considered too risky by traditional funders. Researchers both within and outside of academia who have the ambition to work on a therapeutic lead but have concerns about technical or commercial viability will be invited to apply for this funding, with the goal of finding a therapeutic that proves to be a success within 5-10 years. This is a great announcement given that researchers under pressure may shy away from “blue skies” science for fear that it may not be commercially viable and lose out on producing breakthrough medicines as a result. Science advances in unexpected ways and this funding will allow ambitious researchers to seize the day.

And in yet further positive funding news, a Small Business Research Initiative was launched this week to deal with Antimicrobial Resistance in humans, with £10M invested in two competition strands. The first strand will fund technical feasibility studies while the second will fund more advanced work up to and including demonstration of efficacy in humans. This is welcome news in the global fight against AMR. You can take a look at the funding page here.

Finally, the call for applications for the Most Innovative European Biotech SME Awards 2018 is now open. This is the ninth edition of the awards, and SMEs are invited to submit applications in one of three categories; healthcare, agricultural or industrial biotech. Winners receive prize money, and two years of free membership to EuropaBio. This is a wonderful initiative that recognises the impact of SMEs as the backbone of the European economy. You can find out more about the awards and how to apply here.