We've recently written about the UK's industrial strategy and its specific plans for the tech and creative sectors. It has now published its life sciences sector plan - and so has the EU, which illustrates the importance of the sector to economies.
UK sector plan
The Plan aims to position the UK as the leading life sciences economy in Europe by 2030, and the third globally by 2035, behind only the United States and China.
The government says that the UK life sciences sector faces perennial challenges: it excels at discovery, with pharmaceutical R&D accounting for 17% of all UK business R&D in 2023, the highest of any product area, but struggles with commercialisation and adoption.
Its life sciences plan focused on these three pillars:
- Enabling world-class R&D to build on the UK's scientific strengths.
- Making the UK an outstanding place in which to start, grow, scale, and invest.
- Driving health innovation and NHS reform – ensuring patients get rapid access to the most clinically and cost-effective new technologies, and enabling the shifts from sickness to prevention, hospital to community, and analogue to digital.
As part of the three pillars, the government has committed to six headline actions:
- Creating a health data research service to offer a secure single access point to national-scale data sets;
- Reducing trial set up times to under 150 days;
- Investing up to £520 million in manufacturing;
- Streamlining regulation and market access;
- Introducing low-friction procurement; and
- Partnering with industry to drive growth and innovation.
EU strategy
The EU also launched its strategy for the life sciences this month and says it wants "to make Europe the most attractive place in the world for life sciences by 2030. The strategy sets out measures across the entire life sciences value chain to accelerate innovation, facilitate market access, and build public trust in new technologies, ensuring they benefit the people and the planet."
The strategy also comprises three pillars:
- Optimising the R&I ecosystem to achieve a globally competitive life science sector: by bringing together life science disciplines, stakeholders and funding as well as by strengthening support to pan-European research and technology infrastructure and optimised production processes;
- Ensuring smooth and rapid market access for life science innovations: through more innovation-friendly regulation, use of the innovation principle as well as regulatory sandboxes, and better mobilisation of private and public investments;
- Boosting the uptake and use of life science innovation: through better ways to engage with citizens to beat disinformation and build trust, and to work closer with end-users to ensure adequate solutions for their specific needs.
Both strategies are high level, and it remains to be seen whether warm words will translate into concrete actions.
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