CEO Update | 31 January 2022
I was delighted to see so many familiar and new faces at our annual Gala Dinner on Thursday. It was fantastic to catch up with colleagues from across the sector in person and be able to raise a substantial amount of money for our charity partner of the year, Kidney Research UK.
Finance report published
We were able to celebrate the fantastic innovations seen across the sector over the last year, particularly our new Finance Report published last week with Clarivate shows 2021 was the highest year on record for investments into UK biotech and life sciences companies. £4.5 billion was raised in public and private financings, £1.7 billion (60%) more than in 2020. Venture capital made up a greater proportion of the total raised, but it is the number and scale of IPOs that mark out the year as distinctly different to what the UK has seen before, with a remarkable £1,304 million raised, an increase of 434%, from the £244 million raised in 2020.
This is incredible news, showing that the UK is a global hub for life sciences, but there is an obvious gap that we must plug into the UK’s financing environment. The large fundraises seen in 2021 came largely as the result of welcome overseas investment, meaning that significant value creation will also be offshored. History has handed the UK two world-leading sectors: life sciences and finance. A symbiosis should exist between these two, but it doesn’t, yet. There is a great opportunity to turbo-charge the UK’s biotech and life sciences sector and capture more of its economic value for the UK by building better connections between the UK’s financial institutions and our innovative scaling businesses. This is what we focused on at our pre-gala dinner event in the city of London, 'Harnessing the City’s financial firepower for UK life sciences' with the Life Sciences Minister George Freeman MP, who also gave a barnstorming keynote speech at the Gala Dinner.
Innovation helping deliver the NHS Long term plan
A key theme I’ll be following this year is how innovation from our sector helps the NHS deliver its long-term plan. Last Friday, the NHS released the news that they had reached an early access agreement with Roche for Atezolizumab, the first immunotherapy approved for patients with early-stage NSCLC, whose tumours express the PD-L1 mutation, and who have undergone surgery and chemotherapy.
What is particularly interesting about this deal is that the regulatory approval for this indication came as a result of the MHRA’s participation in the FDA’s Project Orbis. The press release states “first patients will be able to receive treatment in the next few weeks, while the National Institute for Health and Care Excellent (NICE) completes its ongoing appraisal after an early-access deal was struck by NHS England with the manufacturer, Roche”. This essentially inverts the normal process of NHS adoption for a treatment expected to benefit between 850-1000 NHS patients each year, speeding up access.
This is not the only innovative approach to access underway in NHS England – the first NHS “population health agreement” between the NHS and Novartis is five months old this week – which has the goal of enabling 300,000 patients to benefit from new cholesterol-lowering drug Inclisiran over the next three years. This innovative process is fully supported by NICE guidance, AHSN networks and Heart UK campaign. Operating through Primary Care, this is a very different approach that shows innovative companies some of options now available in partnering with the NHS.
I hope all such schemes deliver on the shared aim of getting innovative therapies to NHS patients who need them as fast as possible, whilst ensuring the UK remains an attractive launch market for global players, and sharing lessons learnt from these new ways will be of use to other companies as they prepare launch plans for future innovations.
Immunocore received FDA approval for KIMMTRAK
Interesting to note that Immunocore has received FDA approval for KIMMTRAK, the first regulatory approval for a T Cell receptor therapeutic. It is great to see UK innovation being acknowledged on both sides of the Atlantic.
BIA evidence for science and technology committee’s data inquiry
The BIA has submitted written evidence to the Science and technology committee’s inquiry: “The right to privacy: digital data”, highlighting the benefits of data sharing in our industry, as well as the current barriers. If you are interested in joining the BIA’s work in this area, please email Emma Lawrence.
Medicines Supply for Northern Ireland - MHRA webinar
Following the publication of the EU proposals designed to remove barriers to Northern Ireland supply of medicines, this MHRA webinar will summarise the proposed EU measures and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) guidance updates.
Steve Bates OBE
CEO, BioIndustry Association
