CEO Update: Monday 25th September

Last week we held our latest Women In Biotech event in central London. We were lucky enough to have two thought-provoking talks from our guest speakers Professor Melissa Hanna Brown from Pfizer, and Dr Emma Sceats from CN Bio, who gave us their insights into the role of women as both intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs in the life sciences. A big thank you to Bristows LLP for hosting.

Watching Prime Minster Theresa May give her speech in Florence last week, I was pleased to hear the suggestion of a significant transitional implementation period before Brexit, something that the life-sciences sector has always called for. While we welcome this news, the two-year transition is still not long for businesses in our sector to plan for the future, and there is a continued need for clarity on the future relationship between the UK and the EU. The negotiations need to ensure that the UK stays hand in hand with the EU on medicines regulation, that tariffs (or other barriers) are not imposed where none exist, enable our businesses to speedily recruit and retain the talent they need, and enable collaborative science and funding mechanisms to continue.

We’ll be hosting the next of our BIA Brexit briefing webinars on Friday, which will be a good opportunity to hear more on Government policy, progress of working groups, and how these potentially affect companies in life sciences. Make sure to register here. 

There was some excellent financing news for the sector last week, with Oxitec hitting the headlines as the Prime Minister publicly endorsed their plans for a £7.3 million state- of-the-art mosquito egg production facility to be built in Oxfordshire. Up to 1 billion engineered eggs a week will be shipped around the globe to be used in controlling vector-borne diseases. 
I’d also like to congratulate Synthace on raising £7.3 million in series A funding. It is encouraging to see Engineered biology attracting significant investment.

In terms of governmental financial support for bioscience, we’ve responded to the Treasury’s promising proposal to establish a new National Investment Fund, as part of their recent Patient Capital Review Consultation – ‘Financing growth in innovative firms’. The BIA has long been calling for enhanced domestic financial support for UK bioscience companies, and I am hopeful that this positive government action will open up more opportunities to scale businesses to a global level to capture their full economic potential.There will be further opportunities to discuss the Patient Capital Review at the upcoming UK Bioscience Forum on October 12th, which I urge you all to register for here.

We’ll also be discussing the Patient Capital Review, as well as the recent Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, at the end of the week at our BIA Investor Breakfast. We’ll be joined by ex-science and Treasury minister, Lord David Willetts, alongside invited guests from the City of London investment community to raise the profile of our sector to a generalist investor audience for whom SME biotech may be at the margins of their investment purview.  

Following our joint conference with the MHRA earlier in the year, entitled ‘Innovation in life sciences in a changing and dynamic environment’, we’ve published a handy report that summarises the presentations and perspectives given by experts from across the sector who came together for the seventh annual conference. A huge amount was covered, including the Accelerated Access Review and the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, personalised medicines and companion diagnostics, the Priority Medicines (PRIME) scheme and the challenges posed to medicines regulation by Brexit. Make sure to download our summary – I hope you find it very useful.

On Tuesday, we held our latest BIA webinar, entitled ‘Funding and solving R&D challenges: scientific, commercial and animal welfare drivers behind NC3Rs and CRACK IT Challenges’, which presented a fascinating case study of innovative collaboration between academia, SMEs, and industry, facilitated by the CRACK IT project. In case you weren’t able to tune in, a summary of the webinar’s content can be found on the BIA blog, and the webinar itself can be watched in full here.

And finally, I’d like to remind you all that the deadline for voting in the elections for new members to the BIA Board elections is fast approaching, with the ballot closing on October 10th.  We have a great selection of members who have put themselves forward as candidates this year, so please make sure to read through their profiles and get voting.