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Latest news from BIA
BIA welcomes Minister’s Reassurance on the Patents (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
The Government last night committed to further consultation with the BIA on the UK’s future Intellectual Property rights regime in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit following concerns raised in the House of Lords.
2018 a record year for UK biotech fundraising
New figures published today (Thursday 24 January 2019) by the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) and Informa Pharma Intelligence reveal that the UK biotech sector raised a record £2.2 billion from investors in 2018. The total is the best ever recorded by the trade association and almost double that raised in 2017. The data is presented in the report Confident capital: backing UK biotech and launched by the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Robert Jenrick MP, at the BIA's Strategic Technologies event in central London today.
BIA response to Health Secretary's plan to contain and control AMR
Steve Bates OBE, CEO of the BIA said: “It’s great to see the UK government and NHS committed to exploring a new payment model for antibiotics in our market. The UK took a lead in putting Anti Microbial Resistance (AMR) on the global agenda and it’s really good to see it taking a first mover advantage on innovative pricing and reimbursement for AMR.
BIA welcomes the announcement of Nicola Blackwood as new Under-Secretary of State for Health
The BIA welcomes the announcement of Nicola Blackwood as new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health. BIA CEO, Steve Bates OBE, said: “As a former health minister and former chair of the science and technology committee, and serving as a board member of Eagle Genomics, Nicola knows our sector well and is well-placed to hit the ground running. We had a strong relationship with Nicola when she was minister for health, and we look forward to working with her to ensure the UK stays a world-leader in the life sciences.”
Apply to present at the 2019 Babraham Investor Conference
Babraham Research Campus is offering companies seeking funding the opportunity to present at its 10th investor conference
N-Site Life Sciences Knowledge Portal is now free for all subscribers – new expert guidance updates available
N-Site is a unique knowledge portal which provides expert insight and expertise for organisations, professionals and academics in the life sciences sector. This resource is now free to all subscribers, reflecting our intention for this resource to be used by as many as possible, and offers over 85 Guidance Notes from FTI Consulting, Gill Jennings & Every and Taylor Wessing on the key issues affecting companies in the sector.
Arecor appoints Chief Financial Officer
Arecor Limited, the specialty pharmaceutical company leveraging its innovative and proprietary formulation technology to develop superior treatments for a range of disease areas, including diabetes, is pleased to announce the appointment of Susan Lowther as Chief Financial Officer. Susan was appointed to the board with effect from 4th March 2019.
OXFORD BUS COMPANY AND THE OXFORD SCIENCE PARK FORM PARTNERSHIP FOR ON-DEMAND SERVICE
Oxford, UK, March 5 2019 - Oxford Bus Company and The Oxford Science Park have formed a partnership to strengthen the PickMeUp on-demand minibus service in the Eastern Arc of the city.
CEO Update | Monday 18 March 2019
An interesting first at the WHO this week as it convenes its first expert advisory committee on developing global standards for the governance and oversight of human genome editing. I’ve pulled some thoughts together on it, the Nature letter that made headlines last week and a UK perspective in a blog post here. Parliament will again focus on Brexit this week, in the run up to the European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday. There may, or may not, be another parliamentary vote ahead of the discussion on Thursday where the Prime Minister is expected to ask for an extension to the Article 50 period.
The WHO, gene editing and ethics | BIA CEO, Steve Bates OBE
The World Health Organisation is today convening its first expert advisory committee on developing global standards for the governance and oversight of human genome editing. The aim of the two-day meeting, in Geneva, is to examine the scientific, ethical, social and legal challenges of gene-editing and create guidelines and standards for it. The meeting follows a call last week by some 16 leading scientists from 7 countries: USA; China; Canada; France; Germany; Italy and New Zealand for a global moratorium on heritable genome editing.
Guest Blog | SynbiTECH 2019
SynbiTECH 2019 | June 24-25th, QEII Centre, London SynbiTECH 2019 is the only international forum focused on synthetic biology, taking place in the UK in 2019. The event will address the opportunities and challenges associated with building a multibillion-dollar synthetic biology industry that will underpin the fast-growing bioeconomy. The event is designed for senior business leaders from start-ups to multinationals, investors and policy makers.
The Spring Statement
The Spring Statement is the Chancellor’s lesser Parliamentary set piece of the year, behind the Budget in the autumn. But today’s was overshadowed to a much greater extent by the ramifications of MPs rejecting the Government’s Brexit deal for a second time the night before. Another headache for Philip Hammond was the impossibility of knowing what the UK’s balance sheet will look like next month or the month after that, or the month after that, as a result of the Brexit uncertainty. The statement today was therefore a bit of a damp squib but did include some welcome announcements on an investment in genomics and the treatment of researchers in the immigration system. We also found out that, subject to Brexit, the Spending Review will kick off before summer and cover three years.
Please find a selection of featured BIA publications below. To see our full publications library, click here.
Influencing and shaping our sector, BIA update: January - April 2018
This quarterly update gives an overview of key policy developments and the BIA’s continued engagement with policymakers, regulatory authorities and wider stakeholders on behalf of the UK life sciences industry, from January to April 2018.
Biotech Financing Update: December 2017 to February 2018
The BIA/Informa Biotech Financing Update: December 2017-February 2018 released today shows that venture capital financing and follow on financing on the public markets are off to a solid start in 2018.
Pipeline Progressing: The UK's Global Bioscience Cluster in 2017
A new report released by the BioIndustry Association (BIA) and Informa Pharma Intelligence reveals that the UK has the strongest clinical and preclinical pipeline in Europe.
BIA Best practice guide for communicating R&D
Ensuring investors and the wider public are well informed and confident about bioscience is crucial to the success of individual companies and the sector as a whole. To support the sector to maintain high standards in communications about R&D progress, the BIA has produced a best practice guide for bioscience companies with a supporting library of resources.
