By Maximilian Clarke

A multi million pound package of support — including a new £180 million fund to support the next brilliant medical breakthroughs — and the roll out of state of the art life saving equipment to three million homes are part of a series of measures outlined by the Prime Minister today to support the UK’s life sciences industry.

The UK's life science industry is one of the world leaders; it is the third largest contributor to economic growth in the UK with more than 4,000 companies, employing around 160,000 people and with a total annual turnover of over £50 billion. Its success is key to future economic growth and our goal to rebalance the economy towards making new products and selling them to the world. Globally the industry is changing with more focus on collaboration, out-sourcing of research and earlier clinical trials with patients.

“We can be proud of our past — but we cannot be complacent about our future,” said Prime Minister David Cameron. “The industry is changing; not just year by year, but month by month. We must ensure that the UK stays ahead, yes, we’ve got a leading science base, we’ve got four of the world’s top ten universities, and, we have a National Health Service unlike any other. But these strengths alone are not enough to keep pace with what’s happening - we’ve got to change radically — the way we innovate, the way we collaborate, the way we open up the NHS.

“The two reports we’re publishing today are testament to our ambition: not just to hang on in there with a significant foot-hold in the global market, but to take an even bigger share of that market in the years to come. I want the great discoveries of the next decade happening in British labs, the new technologies born in British start-ups.”


Today the Government launched its Life Sciences Strategy and a review of innovation in the NHS from NHS Chief Executive Sir David Nicholson to meet this challenge and attract further investment to the UK. The measures bring our science base and the NHS together to ensure the UK is the best place in the world for companies to invest in the discovery, development and commercialisation of medical innovations.

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