CEO Update - 11 December 2023
National vision for engineering biology
Last week the UK government published the National vision for engineering biology. The Vision defines the government’s collective ambition for engineering biology and sets the direction for government investment, policy and regulatory reform for the next decade. The chapter on responsible and trustworthy innovation sets out the principles and direction we will follow as the government builds a dialogue with the public and stakeholders about engineering biology.
The Vision’s key announcements are:
- A commitment to spend £2 billion on engineering biology over the next ten years.
- A new Engineering Biology Steering Group to bring together both the current and the next generation of academic, start-up and industry leaders.
- £5 million will be spent on new regulatory sandboxes for engineering biology.
- Making the UK a world leader in responsible innovation by 2030.
- Targeting public investment towards world-class R&D on the critical challenges and foundational research that will enable innovation breakthroughs and the creation of new products.
- Investing in UK infrastructure to reduce the costs of both the early stages of engineering biology innovation and its scale-up; developing a plan for UK start-up and scale-up facilities.
- Growing and retaining a diverse talent pool within the UK to match demand from academia and industry, covering scientific, technical and entrepreneurial skills.
- Working across government and with all relevant regulatory bodies to ensure that the UK’s regulatory landscape helps engineering biology-derived products to reach the market.
- Fostering a cohort of investors and customers who are well-informed about engineering biology’s potential, and a pipeline of firms who understand potential customers’ priorities.
BIA has been involved in developing this Vision since the outset and we look forward to helping deliver these objectives.
UK Statutory Pricing Scheme won’t have a life cycle adjustment – what it means for VPAG
After considering responses to its consultation on the ‘Proposed review of the 2023 scheme to control the cost of branded health service medicines’, the Department of Health and Social Care said that it “has decided not to implement the proposals for an LCA” in the statutory scheme. A life cycle adjustment (LCA) would vary a levy on branded drugs sold to the NHS depending on how long a medicine has been on the market.
This unexpected decision means it is even more important to stay on top of these developments as it makes the optimal process for medicines pricing and access for novel medicines in the UK less clear. ABPI is holding another webinar to explain the Voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth (VPAG) on Friday, 15 December where the Department of Health will attend and answer questions on both the new VPAG and statutory scheme (register here). These webinars are all-industry.
Warm welcome to new BIO CEO, John Crowley
Congratulations to John F. Crowley who BIO in the USA have named as their new CEO. He is currently vice chair of BIO, he’s worked with the organisation, members and staff for years and is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Amicus Therapeutics. He will take up the role formally in February next year.
New datasets to chew on regarding our sector
The UK government published its formal dataset on our sector for 2021/22 last week. It includes new information on scaling businesses – as part of requests made by the BIA many years ago. It's good to see this information now in the public domain. I would be interested in hearing from companies, consultancies and academics who use this data as the basis for their analysis and how they find using it. Please do drop me a line.
Also last week, the British Business Bank published the UK Venture Capital Finance Returns 2023. Now in its fifth year, the report includes the fund performance data of 212 UK VC funds and draws on data from both the British Business Bank and commercial data providers, making it the largest source of information available on the performance of UK VC funds. Headlines here are that UK venture capital funds continue to perform well compared to their US and European counterparts but top-performing UK funds lag behind leading US funds and, unsurprisingly, the performance of UK venture capital funds declined slightly in 2022/23 amid a challenging market environment.
New year, new you? Reskilling for future growth webinar
We are aware that many people in our sector may be looking for a new challenge as we go into 2024 so we’ve added at short notice an additional webinar 'Reskilling for future growth technologies' taking place this Friday lunchtime. If you are thinking of making a move – or having a move thrust upon you - this webinar is for you.
It will provide an overview of the current landscape, areas of growth and investment, where to find training opportunities and the types of careers available across a broad spectrum of technologies including complex therapies, advanced manufacturing, data-driven drug discovery and more.
Staying current and acquiring new skills (and combining these with existing experience) can open opportunities for career development in our fast-moving sector in ways you may not have thought of.
Next week Larry speaks
Stay tuned for my exclusive Christmas special with Larry the Cat from Downing Street (yes really!) next week.
All the best
Steve
Steve Bates OBE
CEO, BioIndustry Association
