UK unveils £650m 'Life Sci for Growth' fund to boost life sciences sector

A £650 million fund to drive forward the UK’s life sciences sector has been unveiled by the chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt.

The ‘Life Sci for Growth’ package brings together 10 different policies including £121 million to improve commercial clinical trials to bring new medicines to patients faster, up to £48 million of new money for scientific innovation to prepare for any future health emergencies, £154 million to increase the capacity of the UK’s biological data bank further aiding scientific discoveries that help human health, and up to £250 million to incentivise pension schemes to invest in promising science and tech firms.

The Chancellor’s £650 million package also includes plans to relaunch the Academic Health Science Network as Health Innovation Networks to boost innovation by bringing together the NHS, local communities, charities, academia, and industry to share best practice. It also lays out changes to planning rules to free-up lab space and updates a route for East West Rail (EWR), the new railway line, to improve connections between Oxford and Cambridge, bringing more investment to the region.

Life Sciences is worth over £94 billion to the UK economy in 2021, a 9% increase on the year before. As a key industry driving UK growth the chancellor has identified it as a focus for government. 

Hunt said: “Our life sciences sector employs over 280,000 people, makes £94 billion for the UK each year and produced the world’s first COVID vaccine.

“These are businesses that are growing our economy while having much wider benefits for our health – and this multi-million pound investment will help them go even further.”

The package follows the Treasury’s Life Sciences Connect conference which the chancellor hosted on 29 March where he heard from senior industry representatives about the opportunities and challenges they are facing.

Policy announcements

The announcements aim to improve the regulatory environment for life sciences companies and the approach to UK commercial clinical trials. As part of this, the chancellor has committed to make it easier for revolutionary healthcare products to get to NHS patients by cutting the regulatory burden of approving clinical trials, and committed £121 million, made up of new and existing funding, to speed up clinical trials and improve access to real-time data via new Clinical Trial Acceleration Networks. This comes in response to publications of the Lord O’Shaughnessy review on commercial clinical trials and Dame Angela McLean’s review on the life science regulatory system.

‘Life Sci For Growth’ commits to invest £154 million from UK Research and Innovation to upgrade the UK Biobank capabilities, the biomedical database containing the in-depth genetic information of half a million UK citizens, something valued by the global scientific community helping drive forward new medical treatments in the sector. The money will go towards a new facility at Manchester Science Park, a new Hub to help SMEs collaborate with industry and academia and better IT to accommodate multi-disciplinary data.

A call for proposals will shortly be released on the government’s Long-Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) initiative, which will offer £250 million of government support to spur the creation of new vehicles for pension schemes to invest in the UK’s science and technology businesses.

Science and technology secretary Chloe Smith said: "Backing our life sciences sector is a double win for the UK. The package we are announcing today won’t just help this £94 billion industry drive more economic growth and create more high skill jobs. It will support advances in public health which will mean we can all have happier, healthier, more productive lives, delivering a virtuous circle of benefits to society and the economy.

"From our pioneering medics trialling new therapies, to our medicine and vaccine manufacturers, and the world-leading population health studies underway at UK Biobank, we have a life sciences industry the rest of the world is rightly envious of. Today we are delivering on the plan we set out in our Science and Technology Framework by going even further in our efforts to back this burgeoning sector, ensuring that it can stay right at the front of the global race for new investment and talent."

The government has also signalled its commitment to the new East West Rail line between Oxford and Cambridge. This region is a globally renowned hub of science, research and innovation, and the railway will support job creation and growth at towns and cities along the route. It announced its preferred route alignment for the third section of the railway between Bedford and Cambridge, including a direct link to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, marking a significant step towards delivering the scheme.

Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay said: “This investment is another significant step in harnessing UK innovation to help cut waiting lists - one of the government’s five priorities - and build a stronger NHS.

“We will take forward Lord O’Shaughnessy’s recommendations to speed up the delivery of clinical trials and boost patient involvement in research, so people getting NHS care can benefit from cutting-edge treatments faster, supported by £121 million in government funding.

“We’re also accelerating research into mental health, backed by over £42 million of investment in clinical research centres across the UK – including in Birmingham and Liverpool - to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis and increase the use of technology for treatment.”

Jeremy Hunt also committed to increasing lab space through pledging to reform planning rules to help scientists. Proposals including local authorities taking greater account of R&D needs in their planning decisions.

In addition, £42.7 million for the Mental Health Mission will go towards delivering treatments to patients, setting up a new centre in Liverpool to understand how mental, physical, and social conditions interlink, and a site in Birmingham to support research and novel treatments for early intervention in psychosis, depression and children. £10 million will go to support UK organisations and researchers to create novel pharmaceuticals, medtech, and digital tools to improve treatment and aid recovery for people with opioid and cocaine addictions.

The Chancellor has hosted four similar events to the Treasury’s Life Sciences Connect conference throughout 2023, each one focused on his key growth industries; digital tech, green industries, creative industries and advanced manufacturing.

Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) CEO, Peter Ellingworth said: “Today’s range of announcements and their emphasis on healthtech are very welcome. I am pleased to see that the contribution of our industry has been acknowledged in each of them.

“Critical for the continued supply of technology to NHS patients and the competitiveness of our country, will be the approach taken to the regulation of medical devices and diagnostics. This was recognised last year by the Life Sciences Council and led to the creation of an Advisory Group. Today builds on that group’s aligned proposals published in March, and the Chancellor’s ambition for the recognition of approvals from other, trusted jurisdictions.

“Collectively, this package represents significant progress to create a system that values innovation and affords our citizens safe, timely access to life saving and enhancing technology.

“We look forward to continuing to support the work of the LSC Advisory Group, and helping to deliver the recommendations of the Pro-Innovation Regulation of Technologies Review, through initiatives such as secondments to a Regulator with an enhanced and welcome focus on healthtech.”