BIA update – 1 December 2025

Hot off the press  – the UK-US pharma deal is announced, plus key policy changes impacting how NICE evaluates cost-effectiveness.

Last week delivered bucketloads for our sector – and we are still unpicking it... The Autumn Budget delivered on some key growth levers, but there are still pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to fall into place and still opportunities to influence. bioProcessUK 2025 delivered another incredible agenda and memorable gathering for one of our strongest communities, whilst celebrating a real-life heroine. 

Two incredible sector success stories fuelled our mission – to deliver world-changing innovation for patients and the planet.

Jane Wall
Managing Director, BIA

Meanwhile, TechBio leapt ahead in the Government’s AI for science strategy, the appointment of a Chair for the much-anticipated Health Data Research Service and an important report on AI skills in Education. 

UK-US pharma deal announced and NICE evaluation policy changes 

The BIA welcomes today’s announcements, which indicate strong forward movement in improving the competitive environment for biotech and pharma in the UK, ensuring preferential access for UK biotech and pharma to key markets, improving their growth prospects and attractiveness to investors and global partners. In addition, the key policy changes that will impact how NICE evaluates cost-effectiveness from April 2026 are also promising and we look forward to discussing the detail around the updated value set for evaluating health-related quality of life. BIA has consistently called for the wider socioeconomic benefits of medicines to be taken into account. 

The deal sees the UK become the only country in the world to secure a zero per cent tariff on pharmaceuticals to the US - protecting UK-based manufacturing and cementing our place as a world leader for life sciences investment.  It also sees the UK government committing that the repayment rate owed by companies under the current VPAG scheme will decrease to 15% in 2026 and remain at or below that level for the duration of the scheme. 

Autumn Budget 

Following some Budget build-up bedlam, Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered a budget with few surprises, thanks in no small part to a steady drip-feed of its contents in the weeks and days prior.  

We were particularly pleased to see that the Chancellor has chosen to extend outdated limits on venture investment tax incentives and employee share options. The BIA has long argued that these have held back the scale-up of life science companies. Ahead of the Budget, the CEOs of 200 of our member companies wrote to the Chancellor calling for these changes. 

However, we are very concerned about increases to business rates on expensive workspaces. Life science companies will be unfairly and disproportionately affected, given the need for expensive laboratory facilities alongside office space.  

Don’t miss out on Tuesday’s Budget webinar, where our experts will unpack what’s behind the headlines and explain what it means for UK life sciences and biotech. 

UKRI backs Industrial Strategy 

The Government has announced a major reform of public research and development funding, with a clear aim to support promising scale-ups and invest in critical technologies to drive economic growth and improve lives.  

Speaking at the UKRI Growth Summit, Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall argued that economic growth and job opportunities will be turbocharged through the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy.

By increasing funding for critical technologies like AI and engineering biology where the UK already excels, we can go even further.

The headline figures include: 

• £8 billion to be allocated to research aligned with Government priorities, including the Industrial Strategy’s focus areas and challenges. 

• £7 billion will specifically fund innovative company growth. 

• £14 billion will go towards curiosity-driven research, maintaining support for fundamental science while shifting more funding towards industry-focused innovation. 

While delivery mechanisms are not yet fully clear, the positive side appears to be a significant tilt towards industry and industrial strategy-oriented research. The latest round of Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Awards has also launched, offering £4.5 million to support up to 60 female innovators. 

bioProcessUK celebrates 2025 winners 

Last week saw the return of our annual bioProcessUK conference, this year held in Newcastle and a sell-out. As usual, the conference featured a line-up of insightful panel discussions, plentiful networking, exhibition, awards, early career posters, partnering, and this year, “8 out of 10 bioprocessors does Countdown” plus dinner at the spectacular Glasshouse and a mass outing to the karaoke club in Newcastle.... you had to be there! 

Congratulations to Cath Green OBE, who received the Peter Dunnill award in recognition of the part she played in the manufacture of the AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine. Other winners included the Future Targeted Healthcare Manufacturing (FTHM) Hub, part of University College Londo (UCL), which was given the Richard Wilson Impact award, in recognition of the transformative impact it has made across the biopharma and advanced therapy sectors.

Emilia Reyes Pabon was named our Apprentice of the Year for her contribution to the Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility at Oxford University and Asel Sartbaeva, CEO and Co-Founder of EnsiliTech, won the audience vote for her work on Ensilication® in the Dragon's Den. 

Autolus CAR-T therapy approval 

We are all celebrating alongside Autolus who have secured NICE approval for their CAR-T therapy Aucatzyl (obecabtagene autoleucel or obe-cel), enabling hundreds of NHS patients with a rare and aggressive form of leukaemia to access the therapy. It is a “great outcome for UK biotech and it was made possible thanks to the collaboration and infrastructure that we have built over the last decade in our sector”, commented Chris William, Chief Business Officer at Autolus, and BIA Board member.

A UCL spinout has worked its way up to NICE approval for the NHS, running clinical trials in the UK and manufacturing at its facility in Stevenage, with a global outlook - a timely reminder of what is possible here in the UK with the right backing. 

Hunter syndrome success 

Another great story in the UK rare disease space made the headlines last week: a ground-breaking gene therapy to treat Hunter syndrome was reported to have been transformational for three-year-old Oliver Chu, who became the first person in the world with his devastating disease to receive the therapy and has since astounded medical professionals with his progress. 

His treatment was only possible thanks to an intervention from LifeArc, which stepped in to provide £2.5 million of funding following US biotech Avrobio handing back the license to the University of Manchester three years later, after poor results from another gene therapy study and a lack of funds. 

TechBio in the KQ spotlight 

Last week, I joined a panel at the Knowledge Quarter’s 'The Future of Knowledge: From Vision to Impact' conference alongside Rosie Rodriguez, SVP Growth at Relation Therapeutics, Dr Sam Barrell CBE, Chief Executive of LifeArc and Dr Rich Ferrie, Chief Executive at LBIC. We discussed ‘The Power of Place‘ and how the Knowledge Quarter‘s cutting-edge lab space, commercial infrastructure and collaborative innovation ecosystem are enabling pharma, tech, spinouts, and high-growth SMEs to connect and grow. It was great to reflect on how the BIA has brought the TechBio community together at both early and later stages, plugging them into our incredible network and celebrating the technologies transforming life sciences and the companies and entrepreneurs at the heart of that innovation. 

AI for science strategy 

We were also excited to see that AI in drug discovery is the first mission highlighted in the Government’s new AI for science strategy: 

Mission One will aim to deliver interventions across data, compute and talent to enable AI-driven science for target discovery, binding affinity prediction and improved models of drug developability, including ADMET and immunogenicity.

The Health Data Research Service (HDRS), backed by £600 million, will provide AI-ready health datasets to support biomarker identification and trial optimisation. 

We will accelerate drug discovery to develop trial-ready drugs within 100 days by 2030 and contribute to deploying new treatments faster.

HDRS chair appointment 

Speaking of which... Baroness Nicola Blackwood, a longstanding friend of the BIA, has been named the new Chair of the HDRS, the planned single front door for NHS health data. We are thrilled to have someone with her deep understanding of the life sciences sector take on this critical role. 

For many years, the BIA and our members have consistently called for a unified, transparent and easy-to-navigate system for accessing UK health data. This is crucial for accelerating life science innovation and delivering better outcomes for patients. 

We look forward to working closely with Baroness Blackwood and the entire HDRS team to ensure this vision is fully realised. Our focus will be on supporting and championing innovative UK SMEs by helping to remove barriers and provide reliable, safe and cost-effective access to the data they need to discover the next generation of medicines and technologies. 

AI skills policy for education  

To further bolster the BIA’s role in shaping AI in science strategy, we have been directly involved with two new policy developments published this month that could shape how the next generation of talent will be prepared. The National Curriculum and Assessment final report and AI skills for the UK Workforce research published by Skills England offer the clearest signal yet that UK education and skills policy is shifting decisively towards an AI-literate, data-confident scientific workforce. 

The BIA’s workshop contributions helped shape several of the review’s key themes of increasing AI literacy: maintaining core science and increasing accessibility to triple science; boosting the emphasis on inquiry, experimentation and problem-solving in science teaching; and better visibility of real-world STEM applications, including biotechnology, biomanufacturing and genomics.  

This creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity to prioritise life sciences and digital skills across academic, technical and vocational curriculum. 

Cell & Gene Therapy Community Connects 

Join us for an exclusive, members-only gathering this Wednesday designed to bring together the BIA’s new Cell and Gene Therapy Community with our Cell and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee (CGTAC). You’ll gain a deeper understanding of CGTAC’s policy work, key initiatives shaping the cell and gene therapy landscape, and have a chance to connect with fellow professionals in a supportive and collaborative environment.   

Key discussion topics will include the main findings from BIA’s upcoming Cell and Gene Therapy report, the challenges and opportunities in the UK’s clinical trials environment, ATMP manufacturing efficiencies and how geopolitical developments are impacting the sector.