The UK’s life sciences sector is falling behind worldwide rivals, lacking out on an estimated £15 billion a yr over the previous decade attributable to declining international funding, falling export share and a drop in scientific trials.
That is in response to a brand new report by LEK Consulting for the Society of Chemical Business (SCI).
Regardless of being named one of many eight precedence sectors within the authorities’s forthcoming industrial technique, the life sciences sector is struggling to transform its world-class analysis base into industrial and financial success.
The report, Unlocking Worth in Life Sciences, reveals that the UK’s international pharmaceutical export share has nearly halved during the last decade — from 7.3 per cent in 2013 to simply 3.8 per cent in 2023. In the meantime, the variety of scientific trials initiated within the UK has been falling by round 8 per cent yearly since 2017–18, signalling a major loss in international competitiveness.
Sharon Todd, chief government of SCI, mentioned the figures ought to function a wake-up name: “The government must heed this wake-up call and act to save the UK’s life science sector before it is too late. We have all the ingredients — world-class research, universities, and a strong industrial base — but we’re losing out to countries that are doing more to keep investment and talent within their borders.”
The warning comes at a time when ministers face mounting strain from senior executives of multinational pharmaceutical companies to reform the NHS’s branded gross sales rebate scheme, which they argue is overly burdensome. The latest resolution by AstraZeneca to cancel a £450 million growth of its vaccine manufacturing web site in Liverpool has additional fuelled concern, after the corporate revealed that the federal government failed to fulfill a deadline to substantiate monetary help.
The UK is house to 4 of the world’s high ten universities, produces 7 per cent of all international educational publications, and helps over 300,000 jobs throughout the life sciences sector. Nevertheless, the report warns that structural points — together with sluggish regulatory processes, an absence of economic incentives, and inadequate help for scale-ups — are limiting development.
SCI has referred to as on the federal government to introduce a “holistic incentive system” to help early-stage companies, scale-ups, and superior scientific trials. It’s also urging accelerated reform of the MHRA to streamline the approval course of for novel therapies, and for better strategic use of NHS information to energy real-world analysis — giving UK companies a aggressive edge in proof technology.
A authorities spokesperson responded by reaffirming the UK’s ambitions for the sector: “We are committed to making the UK a life sciences powerhouse to kick-start economic growth. We have already allocated up to £520 million to boost manufacturing of treatments, devices and medtech in the UK. Our upcoming life sciences sector plan will take targeted, concerted and bold action to unlock the full potential of this sector to fast-track cutting-edge treatments and health innovation to patients.”
With worldwide rivals more and more targeted on strengthening their very own life science ecosystems, business leaders are urging the UK to behave decisively to retain its scientific edge and switch analysis excellence into industrial affect — or threat lacking out on the subsequent decade of worldwide innovation and financial alternative.
