.png)
.png)
CEO Update|Monday 18 November 2019
It’s great to see that Vertex, the manufacturer of life-changing drugs for patients with cystic fibrosis, has struck a deal with the Welsh Government, giving patients access to Orkambi and Symkevi. This means that NHS patients across the whole of the UK can now benefit from these life-saving drugs. In the last few months access has been agreed in Scotland, Northern Ireland, England, and now Wales. These announcements highlight that the NHS is committed to innovation and being at the cutting edge of medicinal products. Read a summary of five deals between companies and NHS England this year here.
Excellent funding news for the North of England this week, as The Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) and MedCity have been awarded £4.5m from Research England to scale up activities to promote UK life sciences. This new partnership, which will cover a population of 34 million, brings together leading universities, NHS teaching trusts, and Academic Health Science Networks, to improve the visibility of UK life sciences expertise on an international stage. Target markets for developing partnerships on research collaboration, knowledge exchange, clinical trials and technical co-operation include Japan, China, South Korea, Israel and the Commonwealth.
If you are coming along to our bioProcessUK Conference you will have the opportunity to explore the Northern biotech hubs around Liverpool. You will also get the opportunity to join an afternoon tour to some of Liverpool’s leading manufacturing sites.
Avid readers of this blog will know that the BIA is strengthening our global alliances and this week I am looking forward to visiting Shanghai to attend the 6th Biocentury Bayhelix China Healthcare Summit. We have six BIA members presenting at the UK and Global Biotech Tracks and we will continue to help our members reap the benefits of this international collaboration.
Out this week – the latest report from The Scale Up Institute. The five-year review highlights significant progress, with an increasing number of scaleups in the UK and more capital for them to grow, but it is also clear that there is much more to be done. We have worked with The ScaleUp Institute from the very beginning and look forward to continuing with their journey.
Closer to home, both the General Election and Brexit deadline stay on our radar. If you haven’t already, I recommend reading our Biotech Manifesto, which we hope to see reflected in the party manifestos in the coming weeks. One for your calendar, this Friday 22 November, we will be hosting the latest of our Brexit Briefing Webinars, be sure to sign up here.
Excitement continues to build for our bioProcessUK Conference which is taking place later this month. Huge congratulations to Sharon Grimster of ReNeuron and Dr Sarah Goulding of the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), who will be awarded the prestigious Peter Dunnill award and Richard Wilson impact award respectively at the conference. I look forward to seeing you all there.
Best,
Steve Bates OBE
What does your role at BIA involve?
Steve Bates is the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association, the UK’s Trade Association for innovative life science companies with over 550 members. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He serves on the UK Government’s Life Sciences Council and the UK Biosecurity Leadership Council. Steve was a founder member of the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce in the Covid crisis, sitting on its steering Board alongside Kate Bingham. He is active member and former chair the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a board member of EuropaBio since 2015.
Previous experience & achievements
Steve has championed, with government, effective industrial incentives like the Biomedical Catalyst, which have crowded in private sector investment into UK SMEs. He is a driving force behind the scale up agenda, spearheading policy agenda to unlock UK pension fund capital into productive UK growth in life sciences. He has forged several links for the sector across the USA, Europe and in China. In his time at the BIA, Steve has developed new member groups focused on cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineered biology. A strong advocate of partnership working, Steve champions sector collaboration with research charities and academia. Proud to lead an organisation with a diverse Board with over 40% female representation, Steve is committed to next generation talent and developing the skills needed for the sector to flourish. Before joining the BIA in 2012, Steve worked for Genzyme and was advisor to the UK Government of Tony Blair working on NHS reform and the Northern Ireland peace process. He was made OBE for services to innovation in 2017 and became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science in 2020.