CEO blog: UK investment momentum sets the scene for a stand-out London Life Sciences Week

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to Monday and to the sounds of preparation for Life Sciences Week, now an essential event on the global calendar. We’re looking forward to the hundreds of events that run from this Sunday, attended by multiple ministers, international investors, VC, biotech, services and regulatory colleagues. At the same time, we will deliver bioProcessUK in Brighton, ensuring our national foundation of high value manufacturing is secured and strong.

BIA’s International Investor Summit offers a focused opportunity to bring global capital closer to UK companies. Scottish Widows’ move into venture growth shows how pension investment can help businesses scale here. We need to turn that appetite into sustained backing for UK biotech.

So, the run-in to the week is all the more well set by more great fundraising from T Therapeutics and Alethio – a combined total of £166 million. UK and global investors are backing UK biotech science and leadership with exceptional rounds and adding to an already strong 2026, with venture investment for the first three quarters of the year at £2.8 billion. Recent strategic pharma investment in UK R&D – announced in the budget - was increased by AbbVie’s opening of its facility at the ARC in Oxford last week. Again backing great people able to turn great science into economic and patient impact.

Whilst we celebrate, we also challenge. We recognise global gaps in early-stage funding the need for competitive UK national support for funders and founders, the vital national capability that is clinical trials and the necessity of adoption of our members’ medicines. We are in active dialogue this week with UKRI on early-stage funding and the Treasury to make Founders Relief fit for biotech.

Last week Our Rare Disease Industry Group put access to medicines firmly on the agenda with active dialogue with NICE and the MHRA and we fully supported the recommendations of ABPI’s clinical trials report that identifies the routes to even more reliable and scalable study delivery.

As we look ahead to London Life Sciences Week, we have plenty to celebrate, to do and to reach for. Onwards all.

In this update:

• AbbVie expands UK drug discovery research in Oxford
• NICE and MHRA: improving access to rare disease medicines
• Alethio and T-Therapeutics announce huge fundraising rounds
• Scottish Widows pension investment backs UK venture growth
• ABPI spotlights urgency around industry clinical trial recruitment
• Science Minister and BBB the International Investor Summit 2026
• bioProcessUK conference: building UK biomanufacturing connections

AbbVie expands UK drug discovery research in Oxford

It was great to see expanded UK R&D capacity and US investment at the opening of AbbVie’s expanded discovery centre in Oxford. This is a clear vote of confidence in UK science and the people working to turn it into new medicines.

The expansion creates opportunities for local researchers and service companies stand to benefit too. US inward investment of this kind strengthens the infrastructure our sector needs to grow. Our job is to build on that confidence and help more innovation reach patients.

NICE and MHRA: improving access to rare disease medicines

With only 5% of rare diseases having an approved treatment, a system-wide approach across government is essential to accelerate access and create an end-to-end pathway for rare disease treatments.

Improving NHS patient access to innovative rare disease medicines was the focus of discussion at our annual Rare Disease Industry Group (RDIG) General Managers dinner.

We were pleased by discussions on closer working between NICE and MHRA to speed up access following the launch of the MHRA–NICE aligned pathway. We also explored how policy commitments and pilots from the Government–Industry sprint process could facilitate access to rare disease treatments.

The evening brought UK General Managers and Country Leads together with Nick Crabb, Chief Scientific Officer at NICE, and Helen Knight, NICE’s Director of Medicines Evaluation, and Julian Beach, Executive Director of Operations at MHRA.

The next step is delivery. We will work with NICE and MHRA to help turn these initiatives into an end-to-end pathway for rare disease medicines. Patients with high unmet need should feel the benefit of that progress.

Alethio and T-Therapeutics announce huge fundraising rounds

Alethio Therapeutics’ oversubscribed $90 million (£67 million) Series A is a substantial step forward for the Oxford spin-out targeting myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of rare blood cancers.

Congratulations to Sofinnova Partners and RA Capital, who co-led the round alongside founding investor Oxford Science Enterprises, with support from Cancer Research Horizons and the University of Oxford.

Founded on the work of Professors Adam Mead and Beth Psaila, Alethio is developing therapies designed to target disease-driving cells.

T-Therapeutics closing its oversubscribed £99 million Series B financing will push the company’s transition to the clinical-stage, as it develops next-generation T cell receptor and T cell engager therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

British Business Bank co-leading the financing is a strong indicator of how British capital should be irrigating the sector.

Scottish Widows pension investment backs UK venture growth

Evidence the pension industry is backing the UK biotech came last week, with Scottish Widows’ first investments in UK venture growth companies, including BIA member Genomics, which applies AI and machine learning to drug discovery. Its specialist fund, launched in February, is managed by Aberdeen Investments, with IP Group managing the UK venture growth sub-fund.

For UK biotech, the significance is clear: patient domestic capital can help scientific businesses grow towards commercial scale. These first investments give us something concrete to build on.

We need that commitment to translate into sustained investment in growing UK companies. Scottish Widows’ move is a welcome step. Let’s build the flow of capital behind it.

ABPI spotlights urgency around industry clinical trial recruitment

We support the recommendations from ABPI’s eighth annual clinical trials report. Predictable timelines, proportionate costs, and efficient study delivery are critical when deciding where to conduct research for the UK biotech small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

We must ensure that this approach can be delivered consistently and at scale, so that all clinical trial sponsor companies can benefit from a data-driven, inclusive and competitive research delivery system, from study start to study completion.

UK biotech investment at the International Investor Summit 2026

We’re delighted that the Minister for Science, Innovation and Investment Chris McDonald MP and the British Business Bank will be among the speakers at our International Investor Summit at London Life Sciences Week 2026 on the Wednesday.

Delivered in partnership with UK Government and returning for its second year, the event will welcome over 75 overseas investors. The exclusive networking aims to forge new investment syndicates with leading UK-based investors and introduce delegates to a select number of BIA members at the forefront of the UK life sciences ecosystem.

All eligible BIA members were contacted a few weeks ago for expressions of interest and will be selected to represent the breadth of our great ecosystem and match attendee investor preferences.

bioProcessUK conference: building UK biomanufacturing connections

With only one week to go, now’s your final chance to get tickets for our annual bioProcessUK conference, which gets underway next week. Adam Wilkinson of Microbiotica, which announced a £36 million Series C last month, will be speaking.

I am looking forward to getting together with the UK’s bioprocessing and manufacturing community. This is a chance to strengthen the relationships that help our sector deliver.

The three-day event will bring the latest bioprocessing developments into focus, with high-profile speakers and an exhibition showcasing innovation across the sector. Structured one-to-one partnering gives delegates dedicated time to explore business opportunities. And an evening dinner offers the perfect opportunity to connect with fellow attendees and continue the conversation.