CEO blog – 11 May 2026
Dear Colleagues,
As I start my first full week as CEO of BIA, I have to share some sad community news. We were incredibly sad to hear that the CEO of Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, Dr Sally Ann Forsyth OBE, passed away on Saturday 2 May after a long battle with illness. Our thoughts are with Sally Ann’s husband, children and the SBC community at this incredibly difficult time.
Chris Molloy
CEO, BIA
Dr Sally Ann Forsyth OBE
Our MD, Jane Wall, expresses the view of the whole BIA team and Board:
Sally Ann played a significant role in shaping SBC into the thriving life sciences hub it is today. Her vision, determination and longstanding commitment to advancing health innovation for patients around the world will continue to leave a lasting impact across the sector. We will miss her passion and drive, but mostly we will miss her being a part of our community. She will be remembered by BIA as a wonderful collaborator and strong supporter of our mission.
Please do contact SBC directly should you wish to send a message of condolence.
It is a privilege to represent and serve you – this pioneering community of biotech entrepreneurs, investors and enabling services companies.
Many thanks to the Board and our new and previous Chairs, Shaun Grady and Dan Mahony, for the opportunity to serve you. My gratitude also goes to the whole BIA team for their constant, steadfast support of this, a vital national industry. Here is a short review of last week and the week to come including BIA’s vision for data report, rare disease R&D, Women in Biotech, Europe GMO rules and Bio€quity and Swiss Biotech Day. Onwards now together...
Harnessing UK health data to boost growth
Today, we launched BIA’s health data vision 2035: harnessing a national asset for growth, setting out how the UK can use consented and well governed health data to drive economic growth, innovation and better patient outcomes.
The opportunity is huge – but only if the UK captures the value from this national asset. HDRS has the potential to transform UK research, clinical trials and personalised medicine, but to realise our data’s full value it must serve and enable UK biotech innovators as well as academia, patients and the NHS.
The countries that successfully combine trusted health data, AI and commercial life sciences companies will lead the next era of human-centred, personalised healthcare. The UK can absolutely be one of them – but the next few years are critical.
Adding my voice to the UK’s rare disease debate
Rare disease R&D helped build modern biotech and drive productivity in pharma. It is now about to enter a new phase of productivity, driven by UK invention.
What was once seen as a fragmented micro-industry is becoming a set of scalable platforms enabled by data, manufacturing innovation and shared technologies. The UK is leading this evolution through combinations of breakthrough science, strong charities and patient groups; major pharma and a growing rare disease biotech community.
At tomorrow’s LifeArc Translational Science Summit I will chair a panel with leaders from biotech and pharma – including the chair of BIA’s Rare Disease Advisory Group – to discuss where investment appetite is today, what is driving global confidence in the sector and how UK companies turn a focus on rare disease into long-term commercial opportunity.
Women biotech leaders unite in Alderley Park
Biotech leaders are navigating a period of huge uncertainty – economic pressure, rapid technological change and constant transformation.
This Wednesday at WIB Alderley Park, we will be discussing how leaders build resilience, manage organisational change and create cultures that can adapt and thrive through disruption.
Most importantly, it is an opportunity to connect, support and learn from one another across the biotech community.
Ensuring Europe is aligned with pro-innovation regulations
Biosolutions innovation is moving quickly, but regulation is not always keeping pace.
While the UK has moved ahead through the Precision Breeding Act, EU GMO frameworks continue to create challenges for innovators across Europe. Together with EBC, BIA is bringing policymakers, regulators and industry leaders together in Brussels today to explore a more modern, practical approach.
With EU Biotech Act and UK-EU reset discussions underway, this is an important moment to shape a framework that supports innovation rather than slows it down.
We are promoting the UK abroad
Continuing with our international activity, last week Martin Turner joined many BIA members in Prague for Bio€quity Europe, where the mood across biotech was stronger than it has for some time.
There is growing confidence that the funding drought since 2022 is beginning to ease, with the UK once again leading Europe in company creation and fundraising according to McKinsey’s latest sector analysis.
The big theme was speed. In particular, how European biotech can compete globally against China’s rapidly growing R&D and drug development capability. Although competition is intensifying so is global interest in Europe’s biotech sector.
Jane Wall also joined UK leaders in engineering biology at Swiss Biotech Day in Basel, focusing on boosting UK-Swiss collaboration. The discussion brought together voices from across life sciences and food tech to turn shared learning into tangible action.
I wish you a productive week ahead.
