CEO Update | 7 March 2022
Invasion of Ukraine
We have all been deeply shocked and saddened by what is happening in Ukraine. I have been heartened to see many in our ecosystem express public messages of solidarity and condemnation of the Russian invasion and provide critical financial and medical donations to the Ukrainian people. The joint statement by the national academies of the G7 states which condemned the actions of the Putin regime from across the globe, reflecting strong messages broadcast from within the Russian science community, resonated strongly with me.
On a practical level, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health have produced a list of medical supplies that they are trying to source, and colleagues at CBI have been working with the Ukrainian Embassy in the UK to facilitate this effort. If your company can help in any way, please email Peter Werner. We also have some wording that may be useful for internal company communication if you want to share further practical ways your team can take action on help and relief. I am keen to hear from members on what role the BIA should play going forward, please email me with your thoughts and ideas.
International Women’s Day 2022
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day (IWD); the BIA is proud to be celebrating the incredible work and achievements of women across the life sciences and biotech sector in the UK and around the world. The theme for IWD 2022 is #BreakTheBias, which aims to promote gender equality and a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive society and workplace.
Last week the BIA held its first Women in Biotech of 2022 at Alderley Park, where we were joined by several early-stage career researchers, who heard inspirational stories and celebrated women in leadership positions.
Ahead of #IWD2022, we're launching Women in Biotech interview series, highlighting some of the inspiring women in the life sciences and biotech industry. First in the series is an interview with Marion Bernard, Chief Investment Officer at Northern Gritstone. Two more interviews will be released tomorrow - keep an eye out on our Twitter and LinkedIn to be the first to watch them!
Government launches the Life Sciences Innovation Manufacturing Fund and £200 million investment in NHS data infrastructure
Following Comprehensive Spending review allocations, we are seeing the UK Life Science Vision coming into practical effect as the Government launched the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF), a £60 million capital grants scheme that will support life sciences manufacturing. Anchoring and growing this high-value manufacturing industry in the UK is crucial to the UK’s resilience to future health threats as well as the creation of new jobs across the country.
The announcement by the government has been called for by the BIA and our industry partners to strengthen our manufacturing capacity. Key to the success of this fund will be it working for companies of all sizes, from big pharma to SMEs, supporting domestic growth as well as attracting businesses from overseas to invest and manufacture their products here in the UK.
Alongside this, a further £200 million has been invested in the NHS to further support health research and clinical trials. Better access to high quality linked datasets will be facilitated by the development of several Trusted Research Environments. These environments will allow secure access to data for research while offering the highest levels of privacy. The UK’s genomics data assets will also be federated, and access granted through a single front door.
The investment will also support clinical trials through a ‘find, recruit and follow up’ service. Clinical trial capacity will be increased by strengthening clinical operations with NHS health data. Making it quicker and easier to set up and run clinical trials will ensure the UK remains a key location for life science research.
This investment should represent a step-change in the ability for researchers and innovators, from the private as well as the public and academic sectors to access and use high-quality health data from the NHS. The funding delivers on government commitments set out in the Life Science Vision, to harness NHS data to drive health research and innovation – we need to ensure it works to support the needs of UK companies going forward.
R&D tax credit discussion ahead of the fiscal event later this month
I was concerned to read a political briefing in the Financial Times that Chancellor Rishi Sunak has R&D tax credits in his sights for the Spring Statement on 23 March.
The BIA has consistently made a detailed and expert case for how important these valuable and vital reliefs are for the life science ecosystem in successfully delivering increased R&D investment from the private sector. We also make a continual case on how to best modernise and target the reliefs in detail.
When phrases like “Evaluations by HM Revenue & Customs found that the relief aimed at SMEs offered relatively poor value for money” are briefed out to the media I get concerned that unnuanced analysis risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The Government’s analysis states: “Taken together, the findings from this evaluation suggest that the scheme generates direct, indirect, and spillover effects benefiting not only businesses that claim under the R&D tax relief scheme for SMEs but the economy as a whole. As such, the scheme can be seen as satisfying its general and specific objectives. In addition, there is no evidence that the scheme distorts competition. Although recent evidence suggests that businesses may not be as responsive to tax incentives as in previous years, the scheme continues to incentivise R&D that would not have taken place otherwise.”
I remember talking to members in the Cambridge ecosystem about their concerns with the Connell report published last year and its misunderstanding of the role of venture capital in the UK’s fastest-growing economy but it seems to still be on the Chancellor’s reading list. Stand by for rapid asks this month.
CEPI conference this week
I will be representing the BIA at the Government and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit today and tomorrow in London. The key themes of the summit will be the mission agreed at the G7 last year to cut the time it takes to develop new vaccines to 100 days, including ‘variant-proof’ vaccines that will work against multiple future COVID-19 variants. The UK has been a pivotal player in the response to COVID-19 and I will report back on the details of the conference in next week’s blog.
Steve Bates OBE
CEO, BioIndustry Association
