BIA publishes Vision for UK life science sector

London, 11 May 2025 – The BioIndustry Association (BIA) today publishes its 10-year Vision for the UK life science sector, the culmination of 18 months of research and engagement with members and the broader life science ecosystem.

Thanking all involved as he launches the Vision, Steve Bates, CEO of the BIA, said:

The UK is a global life sciences leader. Yet unlocking UK biotech’s full potential requires a shift in mindset. A lack of commercial ambition, plus lingering suspicion within academia and the National Health Service (NHS) of industry’s profit motive, have contributed to others reaping much of the economic reward from our country’s extraordinary innovations.

“For too long, we have celebrated the blossoming of academic papers or chased NHS savings yet neglected to ensure our technologies grow industrial roots in the UK. We have thereby denied ourselves the full benefits that ensue from companies, businesses and scaling-up.

“The UK needs to grow its biotech companies to boost nationwide economic expansion and health outcomes. We must embrace their commercial success as core to UK growth, rather than shy away from making money in healthcare and net zero.”

Focusing on the need for domestic capital to support the sector – a core theme of the Vision – Steve added:

If UK financial institutions are not prepared to back UK innovation and growth, the chances of UK companies growing to their full potential will be forever limited by the lack of ambition and vision of some in the City of London who are happy to invest UK taxpayers’ pensions in a supine and passive way that underperforms actively managed platforms here and around the world.

“If the City of London is not prepared to match the ambition of innovators and the UK government in backing the UK to go for growth, it is time to mandate tax-supported investment vehicles (which UK pension funds are) to back British success like our life science sector.

“In 2035, we envision a UK biotech sector with a stronger long-term capital base supporting both early- and later-stage firms. It will include more scaled-up companies, more hospitable public markets, a deeper talent pool, and continued global recognition for leadership across research, health/genomics data, clinical infrastructure, and specialist manufacturing. UK biotech will have shored up its status as a top-three cluster internationally.”

The Vision sets out four key goals that the ecosystem must achieve:

• Late-stage capital has to be unlocked. This includes UK pension funds, which the BIA is calling to be mandated to invest in the sector.
• Home-grown talent has to be developed through greater sector awareness and more tailored educational programs, and by attracting overseas experts to the UK.
• Existing UK strengths must be further promoted, such as health data, dynamic tech and biotech start-up hubs, regulatory and legal expertise, and specialist manufacturing.
• Fostering greater collaboration among stakeholders at home and abroad.

The Vision is published as the UK government develops the Life Sciences sector plan and industrial strategy, to which the BIA has been contributing, and includes analysis of how far the sector has come since the BIA published its last sector strategy in 2015.