CEO blog: UK life sciences momentum, investment and member opportunities
Chris Molloy
CEO, BIA
Dear colleagues,
Welcome back! As the nights close in its time to focus on the busy season ahead.
Money is being committed from British Business Bank into life sciences venture capital and directly into companies, notably Zinc and RedX in the last fortnight, alongside today’s major £75 million cornerstone commitment to Molten Ventures Growth Fund I to expand late-stage scale-up capital for high-growth tech and techbio companies.
With constraints on public funding being laid out, it is all the more important to maintain a strong flow of private capital into companies across the UK to prove their concepts and provide vital R&D services. Continued commitments from the British Business Bank provide the crucial fuel innovative businesses need to start, scale, stay and serve the world from here.
The flow of finance that we and the sector are calling most loudly for delivers value and progress. We see that in other pieces of good BIA member news. Clinical milestones reached for C4X Discovery, Tangram Therapeutics and Apollo Therapeutics as well as Mendelian joining the ARPA-H-backed initiative to use AI and machine learning to improve rare disease diagnosis. Thank you, as always, to the members and partners helping to turn that potential into action.
Whilst the community has been delivering, we are BIA have spent the summer actively preparing with the new government to back our members calls for access to finance, the flow of public grants and a strong ‘home advantage’ for UK SMEs. We’ve been pulling together strategic manufacturing coalitions – together with ABPI and OLS – that define the needs of this important sovereign capability. We have been working with OLS, UKRI and other national stakeholders to ensure that your agenda is their agenda.
We are fit and ready for the months ahead. Representing you across the country and around the world – from Japan and China to Life Sciences Weeks in London and Birmingham, as well at Party conferences across the UK and the political spectrum.
In this update:
- British Business Bank funding updates
- C4X Discovery receives $13 million clinical milestone payment
- Tangram Therapeutics advances MASH candidate to patient trial phase
- Apollo Therapeutics advances first-in-class rhinovirus vaccine for COPD and asthma
- Mendelian joins ARPA-H-backed AI rare disease diagnostics initiative
- Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) meeting
- Party conferences 2026
British Business Bank funding updates
The British Business Bank has announced a £75 million cornerstone commitment to Molten Ventures Growth Fund I, helping expand the availability of growth-stage capital (Series B and beyond) for high-growth UK technology companies. The £350 million target fund focuses on key growth sectors, including AI, deeptech and healthtech, providing vital scale-up runway for convergence areas like TechBio, AI drug discovery and digital health tools.
This latest momentum builds on the strong performance highlighted in our Q2 2026 UK biotech finance report, where UK biotech venture funding reached a record £2.05 billion. Strategic commitments of this size and scale from the Bank provide the crucial fuel innovative businesses need to scale and stay in the UK while accelerating the delivery of life-changing technologies and therapies.
C4X Discovery receives $13 million clinical milestone payment
Congratulations to BIA member C4X Discovery on securing a $13 million milestone payment from AstraZeneca. The payment was triggered by the clinical trial entry of AZD4916, an oral NRF2 activator originally discovered by C4XD and licensed to AstraZeneca in 2022, now being evaluated in a Phase I study for inflammatory and respiratory diseases. Under the agreement, C4XD is eligible for up to $400 million in total milestones, plus royalties, marking another fantastic validation of UK drug discovery expertise.
Tangram Therapeutics advances MASH candidate to patient trial phase
Great news from BIA member Tangram Therapeutics, which has progressed its lead RNAi candidate, TGM-312, into Part B (multiple ascending dose phase in MASH patients) of its Phase I/II RESTORE-MASH study following positive safety data in healthy volunteers. In addition, Tangram announced the appointment of Dr Sonya Montgomery as Chief Development Officer to lead the advancement of its clinical pipeline.
Apollo Therapeutics advances first-in-class rhinovirus vaccine for COPD and asthma
Congratulations to BIA members Apollo Therapeutics and Imperial College London on "encouraging early results" in a Phase 1 clinical trial for their rhinovirus vaccine (APL-10456), a huge win demonstrating the impact of UK biotech.
Despite rhinoviruses causing the great majority of common colds and exacerbating chronic respiratory illnesses, they are considered one of the most difficult targets for vaccine development, with around 180 different strains across three species. But Apollo's data has demonstrated that a single dose of APL-10456 induces T cell responses against strains representing all three rhinovirus species.
Mendelian joins ARPA-H-backed AI rare disease diagnostics initiative
It is great to see BIA member Mendelian join RAPID, an ARPA-H-backed initiative using AI and machine learning to improve rare disease diagnosis.
Mendelian will focus on computable phenotyping, helping turn disease definitions into algorithms that can identify patients earlier across participating health systems.
Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) meeting
BIA was proud to join colleagues across government and industry last week for our latest Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) meeting, where we were delighted to be joined by Kenan Poleo, Director of the Office for Life Sciences (OLS).
Co-founded in 2014 by the BIA and the ABPI, MMIP serves as the central strategic platform ensuring the UK remains a globally competitive destination for advanced, sustainable medicines manufacturing. Under the leadership of Chair Kit Erlebach (FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies), BIA continues to play an active role driving MMIP’s core priorities: building resilient supply chains, accelerating technology adoption, and attracting high-value inward investment to the UK.
