UK on track to beat 2016 biotech venture capital fundraising and maintain European lead in 2017

New data from the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) and Informa Pharma intelligence reveals that life science venture capital funding and secondary offerings are on track to meet or surpass 2016 figures.
 
The Biotech Financing Update, January-June 2017, offers an update on the figures from the annual finance report – ‘Building something great: UK’s Global bioscience cluster’ - that the BIA produced in conjunction with their data partner Informa Pharma Intelligence. This snapshot takes a look at the headline data for the first half of 2017 and will be updated in January 2018 when the full year data will be released. 
 
The headline statistics show:
• UK biotech continues to dominate venture capital funding in Europe and placed third globally raising £361.4 million 
• At the half way point in 2017 seed, second round and later funding are all on track to meet or surpass last year’s figures, with only first round currently behind on 2016
• There was one UK IPO in the first half of 2017 from Skin Biotherapeutics who raised £4.5 million on AIM 
• Secondary public funding rounds are on track to meet or surpass 2016 figures with £261 million raised in 16 offerings across AIM and Nasdaq
• The emergence of Biopharma Credit, which raised over £600 million on the LSE through initial placements and secondary placements, could be a novel source of debt finance for UK life science  
 
BIA CEO, Steve Bates OBE, said: “The UK sector continues to excel at producing great science that attracts investment from around the world. It is encouraging to see UK companies maturing and attracting later round venture capital funding. We look forward to this maturity feeding across to the public markets as we track this data each quarter and for public market figures to improve in the second half of the year.
 
“UK bioscience companies have global ambitions but have long-lacked the domestic financial support they need to scale and take on their US and Asian rivals. It’s great to see the government working with industry to address this issue through the Patient Capital Review. 
 
“The BIA submission to the Review sets out a series of practical measures that alongside the forthcoming sector deal for life sciences have the capacity to enable the UK to become the leading place in the world to discover and develop new therapies and technologies, and scale businesses to a global level to capture their full economic potential.”
 
The data also shows that there is a possible new source of funds for UK biotech in debt financing. Informa Analyst, John Hodgson, said: “UK markets are seizing an opportunity to provide debt financing for life sciences companies. If properly managed, the specialist biopharma credit funds could spread confidence in the sector among generalist investors.”
 
 
Ends
 
Notes to editors
 
In its submission, the BIA called for:              
• The National Innovation Fund to support a diversity of privately-managed sector-specific investment funds
• Incentives, regulatory changes and a communications campaign to encourage pension funds to back the UK’s innovative industries
• Support to expand the number of UK-based fund managers with expertise in the life sciences
• Tax incentives to encourage greater investment in scaling businesses
• A new Investor Visa Fund to channel money from high-net worth individuals emigrating to the UK into innovative growing companies                         
 
Contact:
Ed Sexton, BIA Communications and Media Relations Manager – [email protected] 0207 630 2196
 
About the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA)
Established over 25 years ago at the infancy of biotechnology, the BioIndustry Association (BIA) is the trade association for innovative enterprises involved in UK bioscience. Members include emerging and more established bioscience companies; pharmaceutical companies; academic, research and philanthropic organisations; and service providers to the bioscience sector. The BIA represents the interests of its members to a broad section of stakeholders, from government and regulators to patient groups and the media. Our goal is to secure the UK's position as a global hub and as the best location for innovative research and commercialisation, enabling our world-leading research base to deliver healthcare solutions that can truly make a difference to people's lives.
 

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