CEO blog – 8 June 2026

^{Chris Molloy on building on Parliament Day's momentum, TechBio's breakthrough week, the Oxford-to-Cambridge expansion and driving global investor confidence at the Leadership Summit}

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to you today from our Life Sciences Leadership Summit, which concentrates our sector's entrepreneurs, investors and agents of change.

We all see the positive changes in our ecosystem, and are committed to it, but the macro environment remains tough and changeable. The sector insight and demand signals of this group ensure that members’ needs remain BIA's priorities.

The Summit recognises increasing fundraising across a broader set of companies and the potential from new regional infrastructure investments. It sees new UK R&D product launches, that trials start-ups are improving and hear the drums of deals being done. Yet many (of you) are still hanging tough. Capital needs to cascade deeper and faster into earlier-stage pipelines. New agile regulation now needs to be used to validate new R&D technologies and speed up approval. These are reasons for purposeful confidence in a UK now increasingly aligned to help companies start here, scale here and then stay here.

Here is where we are helping members to move the needle.

Parliament Day: demanding delivery over strategy

At Parliament Day last week, we enabled 40 members to talk directly to policymakers and parliamentarians across Whitehall and Westminster. We continue to develop and maintain this high-value network across departments and parties – and in a rapidly changing landscape - to ensure that your voice is heard and acted upon for your benefit.

We keep these lines of communication wide open, so that listening can convert into tangible delivery. To see exactly how we are making this happen, read our freshly published May edition of Lab bench to front bench, which is out today.

Our 26th annual signature event sent a unified message to ministers and Number 10 special advisers: the cross-government high-level strategy is clear; now is the time for delivery.

Rob Ede of Eli Lilly, and former special advisor, helped fellow attendees to prepare: Know your audience, Map the meeting for mutual wins, and Execute the meeting with focus. From Downing Street to meetings with key regulators and Treasury officials, we focused on unlocking domestic pension capital, using health data and ensuring HDRS has the freedom and mandate to work with the UK and accelerate clinical trial delivery.

TechBio proving its power: UK’s Technology Plan, Genomics Ltd and IMU Biosciences

If anyone in Westminster wonders why we fight so hard for data, they only need to look at the commercial progress of our TechBio members.

Genomics launched its Mystra AI platform to supercharge drug target discovery. Targets with genetic backing are 2.6 times more likely to succeed in clinical trials. Mystra AI turns months of genomic data mining into minutes. Its rapid adoption by industry giants and our member company, Relation Therapeutics, demonstrates our community's ability to turn massive data resources into global commercial value.

Also, IMU Biosciences closed an oversubscribed Series A round at $53 million (£40 million), with a cornerstone injection from the British Business Bank. IMU has mapped the world’s largest immune dataset to measure 100 million data points from a single blood sample. It is a clear validation that proprietary data scale commands global investor confidence.

Stripping cancer's invisibility cloak: Greywolf Therapeutics

When we talk about linking UK biotech activity directly to profound population benefit, look no further than Oxford-based BIA member Greywolf Therapeutics. At the ASCO annual meeting in Chicago, world-class clinical trial data was unveiled for their experimental oral candidate, GRWD5769.

This is an exceptional outcome for an early-stage study, demonstrating a new mechanism of action pioneered here in the UK that could change the global landscape of oncology. Huge congratulations to the Greywolf team.

Tackling fibrosis: Engitix and GSK

Congratulations also go to members Engitix and GSK, who have today announced a significant collaboration deal tackling fibrosis. It is fitting recognition of a ten-year journey of Engitix, who spun out of UCL. It is yet another tangible example of our UK community both creating and adopting high-value scientific innovation.

Nurturing diverse leadership

In an important milestone for sector leadership, we graduated the first cohort of the She Steers NEDs in Biotech Programme 2026 at Victoria House, celebrating a stellar cohort of women who will power tomorrow’s biotech boardrooms. We will actively follow this excellent group’s progress as we help generate further leaders and cohorts.

That vital conversation on commercial growth continues at our next flagship Women in Biotech evening in Canary Wharf on 8 July. This edition brings together CFOs from across the ecosystem for perspectives on building company credibility and securing investor confidence. Tickets are selling fast, so register now.

Smarter tax systems and better bureaucracy

We highlighted in our latest Lab bench update that a pro-innovation tax system is vital to ensure home-grown businesses scale and stay here. We have successfully campaigned to defend R&D tax reliefs and expand the asset limits for EMI, EIS and VCT schemes. This has unlocked an estimated £100 million of additional investment per year. We are now focusing on making the system run as quickly and efficiently as possible. Thanks go to Melissa Strange, Chair of our Finance and Tax Advisory Committee (FTAC), who has been appointed to HMRC's new six-expert R&D Tax Relief Expert Panel to provide direct industry guidance. In response to our direct feedback, the government has also launched a 12-month R&D Advance Assurance pilot to give eligible businesses clarity on specific areas of a claim, including overseas expenditure.

Oxford-to-Cambridge: turning policy into practise

On the infrastructure front, the Chancellor’s landmark announcement that the government will acquire Cambridge East, unlocking 10,000 homes and three million square feet of commercial space, is the type of targeted state intervention our sector needs.

Rachel Reeves used her keynote at the Creating a Scientific Superpower conference to recommit to world-leading innovation clusters. But our warning to the Treasury remains clear: concrete and housing are only half the battle. We must ensure this commercial space is rapidly translated into the highly specialised, affordable scientific infrastructure that scaling biotechs are crying out for.

Challenging the narrative abroad

On the international stage, I opened the OFI HealthTech Showcase last week by challenging the defensive narratives that occasionally trail the UK’s global competitiveness. When you look past the noise and look directly at the talent, the data, and the entrepreneurial ambition on display at our Leadership Summit, it is clear that confidence in UK science is well-placed.

Looking ahead, we will be leading the charge globally. Next week, we will lead the UK presence in partnership with IBioIC and DBT at Bio Innovations Europe to drive our biosolutions outreach, followed by a week in Shanghai at CPHI China with DBT and MHRA, and then on to co-hosting the UK reception at BIO International Convention in San Diego. Ensure you leverage our exclusive member discounts and delegation spaces to scale your pipelines abroad.

For those of you with us at the Leadership Summit today, let's make the most of these closed-door sessions. For those not here, we hope you shall be next year and at our member sessions throughout 2026.

Onwards now together.