New government delivers optimism and concern for the region’s Life Sciences

This followed what felt like a long run of warnings of doom to the finally delivered ‘Invest 2025: the UK’s modern industrial strategy’ and ‘Autumn Budget 2024’.

There will be much written, both critical and positive about both of the above where shaping the details of implementation becomes the key focus.

There were a number of announcements in the Budget that provided grounds for optimism for our sector, particularly in the Cambridge region.

The Chancellor and team appear to have listened to a degree when it comes to retaining the R & D Tax Credit, EIS/VCT and the need for the National Wealth Fund. This complemented the inherited private investment already in train when the new government arrived and was further evidenced by the announcement by Prologis that it is proceeding with its £500 million investment into new facilities at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which creates fresh optimism.

All measures that help our nascent BioMedTech businesses to attract investment and deploy it effectively to efficiently create value are most welcome.

The sheer fact that the region’s life science and tech sectors have secured in excess of £22 billion worth of deals in the past year illustrates how the quality of innovation in the region attracts private capital.

Maintaining our attraction to such investors is pivotal to the economic and health outcomes and impact this region can deliver nationally and indeed globally.

Further good news included commitment to the £20.4bn funding in 2025-6, £520m for innovative manufacturing over the next five years and increased budget for the Department of Science & Technology to include funding of the UK’s participation in Horizon Europe for example.

There are positive signs that the UK government is committed to helping protect the globally important status of life sciences in this country. Commitment of £10m to allow further work by the Cambridge Growth Company along with the agreeing the next steps of the East-West Rail delivery demonstrate the importance being placed on harnessing the potential of our highly innovative cluster to be a major part of the national economic recovery.

Innovate Cambridge, Cambridge Ahead and the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority groups are continually making the case for investment in the region, with exciting potential outcomes over the next decade both in monetary and societal terms – messaging that appears, with the support of numerous other groups such as One Nucleus, to be landing well.

The multi-billion capital investment into the NHS, creating higher quality, innovation-ready hospitals and care settings could result in truly making the NHS an ‘innovation champion’ where new technology and products are adopted quickly.

As expected, it has not all been good news. The changes to Capital Gains Tax, Employer National Insurance Contributions, Business Asset Disposal Relief, bus fare caps and what many feel will be interest rates staying higher for longer due to government borrowing could have widespread detrimental impacts.

Denting the appetite of investors and entrepreneurs by taxing the fruits of their risk taken along with increasing the direct and indirect costs to staff these businesses employ may temper some of the pre-budget confidence.

In a sector that relies on attracting highly talented and often mobile individuals to drive innovation, that human capital can feel justified in expecting to have a high quality of life in terms of infrastructure, services and aspirational homes.

This is where what happens next when it comes to spending the Government’s borrowed billions on large infrastructure to improve housing, transport, water and environment for example becomes key.

Highly productive and attractive clusters only work where the target workforce and investors wish to be. There is no doubt Cambridge will always be a strong magnetic pull for scientific talent and to some degree entrepreneurs and investors but it cannot rest on its laurels.

With other locations having measurably closed the gap when it comes to accessing capital, available laboratory space, recruitment offers and in attractive growth capital, the stakes are high.

These alternative locations referred to are not just US either; some are much closer to home and hence genuine alternatives when company leaders are deciding on the best location.

The success of clusters such as Cambridge is vital to the UK’s long-term success and competitiveness. One hopes the need to factor in their requirements doesn’t see the large infrastructure investment ignore the necessary proximity and connectivity of building new infrastructure to those locations that can drive economic and societal returns.

It is clearly a two-way deal for any community. With the receipt of capital to invest in infrastructure to enable business growth comes the responsibility to deliver inclusive and sustainable growth alongside the financial returns.

The region has a long history of successful innovation and value creation in life sciences – from the discovery of the structure of DNA and monoclonal antibodies to the application of such advances to deliver life-changing medicines to treat globally unmet need. The impact to date should not be underestimated.

Recent examples of such value creation being recognised include the Vianautis-Lilly collaboration deal, the Nuclera $75m series C investment round and the Epitopea $31m pre-series A raise. All would suggest there is a very bright future ready to be harvested from this innovation hotbed.

The ongoing convergence across sectors such as tech, biopharma, AI/ML, engineering, AgriTech and advanced manufacturing may render the wider region’s capabilities and hence attractiveness to capital with an even brighter future – a factor that merits investment, political and policy support for everyone’s benefit.