From the editor: Things can only get better… right?

Ian Bolland outlines the challenges facing life sciences in 2021, and hopes for a better year than the previous one. 

Welcome to first issue of Med-Tech Innovation News for 2021. As it’s the first it feels natural to look ahead but while we hope for better things this year, we are definitely feeling the after-effects of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A different calendar year unfortunately does not mean there is instant change. Though life sciences companies have had their fair share in the UK and Ireland. Northern Ireland remains closely aligned with the European Union’s Single Market and Customs Union in an attempt to preserve peace on the island of Ireland, while changes to the UK’s trading relationship with the largest bloc on its doorstep was only cemented eight days beforehand when adverts telling them to “get ready” had been circulating the media for a couple of months prior. A period of adaptation in the early stages of this new arrangement is bound to provide challenges for life sciences. 

But over the last year or so, the industry has proved itself capable of rising to challenges when it helped mass produce PPE, ventilators and tests to combat a deadly organism that didn’t even exist only months earlier. The pharma industry deserves huge plaudits for developing and rolling out a vaccine as we all intend to get back to the things we love doing – and I hope for those reading that includes attending the Med-Tech Innovation Expo at the end of September. It’s frustrating that we had to postpone it yet again, but we want to ensure you have the confidence that you can attend safely and exhibitors, speakers and attendees alike all get as much out of it as possible.

We’ll need a helping hand in that. We all hope that at least one of the targets from government becomes a reality and that we can all return to normality at some point this year. After so much unfounded optimism, to the point where it feels like things have got worse, it’s hard not to be sceptical. Regrettably it was nicely summed when the health secretary attended a surgery to see vaccines administered only to find out they haven’t arrived due to delay. At the time of writing this has thankfully been an abnormality when it comes to the UK’s vaccine rollout. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and my arm is at the ready!

But the first issue of the year intends to highlight some key aspects of the industry in recent months. Particularly as the diagnostics industry has risen to the challenge when it comes to testing capacity for dealing with Coronavirus, it’s only fair we highlight other areas they are involved in too, as well as more regulatory challenges coming the way of our medical device companies in the years ahead – particularly those that operate both in the UK and the EU.

These are the two big challenges that we all have to deal with and overcome, both on a personal and professional level. By now, we probably know someone who’s either been affected by the dreadful disease or their jobs and businesses have had to change the way they work because of the changing relationship between the UK and mainland Europe.  

I can only sign off by saying I hope you enjoy what we have to offer in 2021, and that this year is more prosperous and safer, individually and collectively, than the last one.