CEO Update: Monday 19 March

I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at our Cambridge breakfast on Thursday at the Babraham Research Institute. By then I hope the shape of the transition period for Brexit will be clearer and that I’ll be able to give our take on what it means for our sector.  I’ll also update on Friday at our monthly Brexit briefing webinar, which you can register for here.

It was good to catch up with many BIA members at BioEurope Spring in Amsterdam last week, where the strength on the UK ecosystem was evident. Speaking on two issue panels - one on Brexit and another on AMR - I was struck by the perseverance and endurance of company leadership despite the uncertainties in the policy landscape.

Tuesday saw the delivery of the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, which was generally low-key and without any major surprises. Two noteworthy consultations were published by the Treasury alongside the speech however, one on Entrepreneur’s Relief and another on establishing a new Enterprise Investment Scheme knowledge-intensive fund. These are both relevant for the sector and definitely worth engaging with. We’ve published a blog with a more detailed breakdown of the Statement and key points of interest so do give it a read.

Last week, we also published our response to the consultation on the Mayor of London’s Economic Development Strategy, in which we highlighted the need to support NHS-industry partnerships and secure access to data for research,  to address the short supply of long term capital, and to promote the interests of the life sciences sector as the Brexit process continues.

It was great to see the first site visit take place on Wednesday for our 2018 Manufacturing Advisory Committee (MAC) bioproduction skills networking tour. This is the second cohort to take part in the initiative, which was launched last year to support the development of the next generation of bioprocess leaders, as part of BIA MAC’s objectives of connecting, advising and influencing. The participants, who come from a range of BIA member companies, kicked of their tour series at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies and we’ll be updating you on their experience via a blog next week.

Following on from the Advanced Therapies Apprenticeship event at GlaxoSmithKline Stevenage during Apprenticeship Week earlier this month, we’ll be publishing a blog this week detailing what was discussed and how suitable apprenticeship programmes are being identified within the sector.

In other news, the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) is currently on the lookout for new members for the Innovation Advisory Board, which is one of three Council Advisory Boards that provides recommendations on existing and future STFC programmes around the strategic priority of innovation. Please do share with your networks and highlight to any individuals who may be interested. Find out more here.

Finally, I’d like to encourage members to take part in a Cancer Research UK project exploring how the clinical trials landscape might evolve in the context of Brexit. They are seeking company input into this survey this week. This is vital for our sector as we need to improve the productivity of the clinical development process. We are lucky to have globally relevant leadership in many of the key disciplines (real world evidence, genomic analysis, HTA, the MHRA) needed to build the global development laboratory for this science for the mid-21^st century in the UK.

This was also a key topic of discussion at the inaugural meeting of the life science strategy implementation board which I attended last week, and which has the attention of all parts of the eco-system, including the significant funders. I am convinced this will be a key theme of work in the coming period for us.

Best,

Steve.