CEO blog: backing UK life sciences from discovery to scale-up

Dear colleagues,

Greetings from the journey to the north-west. Today BIA is representing the community at the Labour Party Conference and chairing a panel on industry uses of health data. Then I’m meeting with members in Manchester tonight. Last week I had the pleasure of seeing and supporting members at Birmingham Life Sciences week and at the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Symposium.  

Across the country, the same message is clear. Although it is still hard to raise capital at early and scale stages wherever you are, our UK advantage is not one institution, technology or city. It is the connections within and between our clusters of science, data, funders, charities, trials, specialist capital and regulation – all to then drive value and adoption.

There is work to do to ensure our sector has built-in advantages at home and abroad. Our businesses still need support from the public sector funders and institutions to get going and from the private sector to scale and prove concept. They deserve a clearer regulatory route from discovery to patient and a policy environment that rewards investment and fosters international collaboration. All of us at BIA will continue to make the case wherever decisions are being shaped: in government, through UKRI, our sector clusters and VC.

Meanwhile there is plenty to celebrate across the system: another major BBB commitment to life sciences funds; substantial AI-biotech financing; pivotal gene therapy data; rare disease ambition enabled by pioneering regulation; coherent clustering for differentiation; and a clearer UK message to the world.

Wherever you are today, I wish you a productive and purposeful week ahead.

In this update:

• £135 million of British Business Bank backing for two life sciences funds
• How UK rare disease R&D can lead a changing medicines landscape
• Beacon Therapeutics’ XLRP gene therapy results
• Basecamp Research’s $140 million Series C
• Birmingham Life Sciences Week
• Liberal Democrat party conference
• Women in Biotech Edinburgh

British Business Bank backs UK life sciences scale-ups with £135 million

The British Business Bank has agreed to commit £60 million to Advent Life Sciences Fund IV and has committed £75 million to the Advent Life Sciences Growth Fund. Together, the two strategies will support promising companies from early development through clinical progress and commercial scale-up.

Commitments of this size and breadth are essential to give innovative UK businesses the fuel they need to start, scale, stay and serve the world from here. Through strategic backing of Britain’s expert venture firms, the British Business Bank is actively expanding our funding ecosystem, accelerating the delivery of medicines to patients and value to taxpayers.

British Business Bank Chief Investment Officer Leandros Kalisperas put life sciences top of the list of sectors where Britain has a genuine international strategic advantage. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds also made the wider prize clear: helping UK firms scale here, create skilled jobs and bring treatments to patients faster.

Rare disease R&D is a UK strength that can reshape medicines R&D

At the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Symposium, I saw bold but deliverable ambition for the UK to reshape how medicines are discovered and developed.

Rare disease is an area where the UK can choose a distinctive and essential role. Deep disease understanding, patient trust, genomic and clinical data and new therapeutic modalities allow smaller, more focused programmes to move with precision.

Beacon Therapeutics reports pivotal XLRP gene therapy success

BIA member Beacon Therapeutics has reported positive topline results from its registration-enabling VISTA trial of laruparetigene zovaparvovec, or laru-zova, for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa.

This is a landmark result for a progressive inherited retinal disease with no approved treatment. It also demonstrates the potential of a one-time gene therapy to change the course of disease, as Beacon prepares for discussions with global regulators.

Basecamp Research raises $140 million for AI-designed medicines

London-based Basecamp Research has announced an oversubscribed $140 million Series C to train a new generation of its EDEN models and move a pipeline of AI-designed therapeutics towards clinical development.

The company’s ambition is to develop cures for diseases that remain incurable by designing medicines that reprogram the body to repair itself. Basecamp combines frontier AI models trained on proprietary biological data with technology for writing DNA sequences into cells.

It is another powerful example of UK TechBio attracting serious global capital – and of the value created when world-class AI, distinctive biological data and translational ambition come together.

Basecamp will also be speaking at our TechBio event on 13 October, giving our community a timely opportunity to hear more about the science, strategy and next steps behind this milestone – grab your tickets now!

Birmingham Life Sciences Week showcases West Midlands innovation

I was pleased to take the BIA message to the launch of Birmingham Life Sciences Week, delivering a keynote and joining discussions on translation and the decade ahead. The programme ranged from AI-enabled drug discovery to NHS data, commercialisation and collaboration between pharma and technology.

Regional ambition is strongest when it connects to a national story. Life Sciences Week showed how research, healthcare, industry and investment can meet to build that story together.

Liberal Democrat growth plan puts UK-EU trade in focus

At the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, the party presented itself as a pro-business voice focused on stability, the rule of law and closer cooperation with Europe.

Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper used the conference to launch a ten-part 'Plan to Get Britain Growing Again', covering investment, innovation, skills, infrastructure and trade barriers. We spoke to her on the day and will be feeding into the plan with the contribution of BIA members.

Members can get a full digest of what the conference means for life sciences.

Women in Biotech Edinburgh - last few tickets remaining!

AI is becoming critical to faster outcomes, stronger performance and commercial viability in biotech. But the value will only be realised if today’s operational and infrastructure decisions create the right foundations

At Women in Biotech Edinburgh on 30 September, leaders will share practical lessons from digitalisation and automation, including how they have managed the infrastructure needed to unlock value. The message is simple: AI readiness looks different for every organisation, but it always starts with data readiness.

That is a conversation for the whole sector. Allyship matters, the event is open to all, and I hope many of you will join us in Edinburgh.