CEO Update: Monday 16 October

Last Thursday we held one of the most stimulating and vibrant events of the BIA calendar – the UK Bioscience Forum. Taking place at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, the UKBSF brought together almost 300 people from across the sector for a jam-packed day of networking, presentations, and panel discussions.

 One of the many highlights of the event was Professor Sir John Bell’s keynote speech, in which he extolled the UK life science sector’s strengths in productivity and skills in genomics as being the best in the world, while giving a frank assessment of the challenges we face. He emphasised the urgent need to reduce the cost of clinical trials, to better integrate with the NHS, and to develop a greater appetite for high-risk science.

A big thank you to all the speakers, press, and delegates for coming, and to all the BIA team for making the event as successful as ever. Take a look at our UKBSF Storify, to get a glimpse into how the day progressed.

Brexit was of course a subject of great interest, and we tackled some of the key issues on our panels, ‘Sources of funding in the post-Brexit world’ and ‘Brexit progress report and looking to 2018’. We also have a new member-only seminar series starting on 27 November, which will focus on four key policy areas identified as key to the life sciences in light of Brexit – Regulation, People, Trade, Research & Collaboration. These half-day meetings will aim to provide a forum for open discussion between members and to help inform companies’ planning. More information, including how to book, will be announced soon.  

This week I’ll take our Brexit messages direct to Ministers at our next UK /EU Ministerial meeting for our sector and if you’d like to find out where we’ve got to do join our webinar Brexit Briefing this Friday. These update webinars provide a monthly snapshot on Brexit from a life science industry perspective, discussing developments in government policy, progress of working groups, and how these potentially affect companies in life sciences. Friday’s webinar will take place at 16:00-16:30, and you can register for it here.

In Japan last week the BIA was part of a 50-strong UK delegation to BioJapan, the largest foreign group attending the conference. The Life Sciences Minister Lord Prior led the delegation, which also included a number of BIA members such as Orchard Therapeutics and Domainex. Our Policy Manager Martin Turner spoke on a panel about the UK commercialisation environment at a fringe symposium and we were delighted to co-host the UK drinks reception with MedCity, the Northern Health Science Alliance, and Colliers.

At the Scottish National Party Conference in Glasgow last week, our Policy and Public Affairs Manager Rachael Mann heard about the SNP’s plans to establish a National Investment Bank to provide long-term patient capital for SMEs. We also used the opportunity  to raise our concerns about the potential impact post-Brexit trade barriers could have on the health of UK and EU citizens with SNP MP Angus Brendan McNeil, Chair of the House of Commons International Trade Select Committee.

And finally, I’d like to encourage you all to have a look through our latest publication ‘Influencing and shaping our sector, BIA update: July – October 2017’. This quarterly update summaries key policy developments and the BIA’s continued engagement with policymakers, regulatory authorities and wider stakeholders on behalf of the UK life sciences industry, over the last few months.

Best,

Steve.