CEO Update | 1 November 2021
We’re celebrating a great result for sector from the Autumn Budget and Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) last week, keeping an eye on the Northern Ireland Protocol and hoping to see you at an upcoming BIA event.
The Budget delivers the BIA’s priorities
Last week, the Chancellor delivered the Budget and concluded the first multi-year spending review since 2015 to set Government investment priorities until the end of the Parliament. He rightly referenced the UK’s world-leading life sciences sector and delivered crucial investment and policies to support it.
This was a key moment for the campaigning work the BIA has undertaken for the sector in recent years, with many of you working with us in the lead up to the Budget to highlight to the Prime Minister and Chancellor our sector’s four core recommendations to make the UK a life sciences superpower. 100 of you signed a joint letter calling on the Government to maintain their commitment to R&D investment and setting out our four recommendations, which we were able to deliver to the Prime Minister just in time for the meeting at which we understood the key decision was to be made.
It’s great to report that two of the BIA’s key objectives – increasing the budget of Innovate UK and expanding R&D tax credits to cover data and cloud computing – were delivered. The 36% increase in Innovate UK’s budget should enable them to commit to our third key objective - that the Biomedical Catalyst be funded for the long term - and we continue to have productive discussions with the Treasury and others in government in support of the scale up taskforce work, including further consultations on pension fund rules and public market financing.
One issue that arises from the Budget that will need more work and member engagement is the Chancellor’s announcement that R&D tax reliefs will be “refocused on innovation in the UK”. We will need to continue to explain why working in a global way is vital for our innovative companies. We know you need partners both within the UK and with global leaders to gain the competitive edge to take on the world. Supporting this activity with R&D tax relief has enabled UK companies to develop therapies for rare diseases, attract significant inward investment and retain intellectual property in the UK. We have already spoken to the Treasury about the potential negative impact that removing overseas R&D expenditure from the regime could have and they have confirmed they are keen to work with the BIA and our members on these reforms in the coming months.
Northern Ireland protocol and Horizon Europe
This month I’m also keeping a close eye on UK-EU discussions on the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Either we will see a pragmatic and workable technical and political agreement emerge as a result of talks or a lack of agreement leading to an escalating dispute that could impact our sector. I’m particularly concerned if the lack of a deal not only leads to continued disruption and cost to medicine supply in Northern Ireland, but also means that UK science is not able to join the next round of the Horizon R&D funding programme, even though the UK government has committed the money to support this in last week’s Budget. I fear that the language being used is hardening rather than softening on this.
Join us for virtual and in-person events this week
It’s our virtual transatlantic Women in Biotech this Thursday, run with our partners BIO. We also have a webinar with BioCentury and the China-Britain Business Council to give you an update on opportunities in China for UK biotechs tomorrow (Tuesday).
If you’d like to network in person, we’ve our regional event in Cambridge in partnership with One Nucleus next Thursday 11 November at Babraham. I’m looking forward to seeing a great crowd of BIA members there.
Inform the UK’s new data research standards at our Government roundtable
We are hosting a roundtable on Friday to respond to the Government’s consultation on data regulation: Data: A new direction. Officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will be present and the session will be chaired by data protection lawyers from Bird & Bird. The session is relevant to any companies which use personal data and will cover consent, medical confidentially, data intermediaries, AI and article 22 of GDPR. Please contact Emma Lawrence for more information on attending.