By Mark Sanders, Chairman of Sciopolis

UK Life Sciences are missing out on billions to global rivals: isn’t it time to act before it’s too late?

The SCI report yesterday highlighted a competitiveness gap costing us £15 billion annually. Despite being identified as a key sector for economic growth, the UK is falling behind international rivals.

Key findings from the report were:

- The UK has dropped from the second to eighth place in global life sciences FDI

- Clinical trials initiated in the UK have decreased by 8% since 2017/18.

- Employment in life sciences has remained flat in the UK while growing by 20% in Europe.

- The UK’s share of global pharmaceutical exports has dropped from 5.4% in 2018 to 3.8% in 2023.

 These findings are not encouraging and even less so in the context of the ambition for the UK to be a Science Superpower.  My perspective is that we need to not only focus on the desired outcomes, but also the process and infrastructure to get us there.

One positive way to react to this crisis would be for the government to focus on physical infrastructure that can retain and support innovators in the UK.

Innovation Hubs similar to what Imperial has built at White City Innovation District- well connected, with density of researchers and industry, supported by the local authority as well as by a top university- increase the chances for innovators to attract investment, develop their ideas and make it through their commercialisation journey

We need to quickly refocus on the needs of innovators and build places for them to come together, and robust networks that help them to connect the dots. This, of course, is in addition to the other measures suggested by the report, i.e. tailored incentives, streamlined regulatory processes etc.

 We can celebrate the UK at the forefront of life sciences invention, but we need to better sustain innovation through the other tricky phases too- including scaling and manufacturing.

The risk of not doing it may mean losing the battle to other ecosystems that can cater for the entire journey.