Steve Bates, CEO, BioIndustry Association (BIA)
Nishan Sunthares, Managing Director, Diagnostics, ABHI aparito.comclinicalDigitizingtrials.
“The sector’s critical role in national health was highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic through research and manufacturing”
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“The UK is in a fantastic position to lead this revolution in science, technology, and healthcare delivery.”
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companies and a vibrant research base have created a thriving UK ecosystem in genomics and advanced therapies — and now a fledgling mRNA ecosystem. We are a favoured destination for international investors who realise opportunities in turning science into life-changing and planet-saving products.
Vaccine research
A key part of this will be enabling UK pension investors to back key businesses in UK life sciences to grow and scale.
WRITTEN BY Steve Bates CEO, AssociationBioIndustry(BIA)
A key part of this will be enabling UK pension investors to back key businesses in UK life sciences to grow and scale. We can supercharge the UK’s approach to personalised
The sector’s critical role in national health was highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic through the research and manufacturing of vaccines, antivirals and antibodies to combat the virus.
Economic advantages
Innovative sciences
Liz Truss said in her leadership campaign that she wants to make the UK ‘a science and technology superpower’ — implementing the vision, building on existing UK advantage and navigating the storms on the horizon will be crucial to the UK life sciences and biotech sector achieving that goal.
Life sciences provide a huge boost to the UK economy, generating £36.9 billion in GVA annually and supporting 409,000 jobs while solving some of the biggest healthcare challenges of our generation.
New government: new challenges and opportunities for UK life sciences
“Culture, strategy and leadership are arguably the three most powerful things to get right in a business.”
Life sciences are at the heart of solving the NHS’s biggest challenges with its key role in economic growth by rapidly deploying the latest health innovations.
Dementia — the leading cause of death in the UK — costs the UK £25 billion per year. Poor mental health costs £118 billion.The economic gains of a successful life sciences strategy are clear and necessary to avoid burdening the NHS. For example, failure to utilise the most innovative treatments for obesity will cost the NHS £10 billion per year by 2050. Research-active hospitals and clinicians provide better-quality, more efficient care.
The new government is a time of opportunity — and a moment where the UK life science sector can capture the focus of incoming ministers with the possibilities for growth, jobs and solutions.
medicines and treatments through genomics with newborn whole genome sequencing, taking us closer to every child born in the UK having access to their genetic data and personalised treatment.
Stuart Rose ChiefOfficer,ExecutiveOBN Page drugsdevelopingthese“Thanks06toadvances,researchersarenewandimprovingclinicaloutcomes.” Sanj Kumar CEO, The European Laboratory Research & Innovation Group (ELRIG) Page 07 “It is advancesbringinginprecisionmedicinethatcouldtransformthelivesofpatients,potentiallyoffercures.” Dr Jennifer Harris Director of Research Policy, ABPI Page 05 Head of Strategic Partnerships: Roz Boldy Managing Director: Alex Williams | Head of Print & Design: Thomas Kent Designer: Aimee Rayment Content Editor: Angelica Hackett O’Toole | Head of Digital: Harvey O’Donnell Paid Media Strategist: Jonni Asfaha Social & Web Editor: Henry Phillips Digital Assistant: Carolina Galbraith Duarte | All images supplied by Gettyimages, unless otherwise specified
The Life Sciences Vision 2021 is the roadmap for government and industry to deliver further highly skilled, well-paid jobs to the UK economy and enable NHS patients to access innovative medicines and treatments.
It is vital that the public–private partnership ways of working by the UK Vaccine Taskforce, which will be disbanded at the end of September and relocated in government, are retained in the institutional DNA of Whitehall.
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Entrepreneurial
WRITTEN BY Sheree Hanna
With both big pharma and investors recognising the value of investing in AI — along with the rapid growth of start-up tech companies in this arena — we can expect to see the industry increasingly combining its traditional approaches with the technology in the future.
Scientific technology leading the way forward
The potential is huge; and one trail-blazing firm — which is currently assisting its clients with taking advantage of the benefits advanced technology can bring — is L.E.K. Consulting. Stephen Roper, a partner there, says, “This is a great example of how AI can be used, because in the absence of an AI tool, and just relying on a person knowing all this information about this molecule, this would not have happened anywhere near as fast.”
Strategies that work
Overcoming hesitations and barriers
The global consultancy, established 40 years ago, works closely with small and large pharma companies as well as contract manufacturing and research companies and pure AI players.
Also, collaborating more closely with competitors by sharing data is seen as a way of utilising the technology more swiftly within the sector, but this is creating hesitancy among rivals for obvious reasons.
Want to hear more? Scan the QR code to join our free webinar, meet the opportunitiespartnersL.E.K.anddiscovertheandchallengesofAIindrugdiscovery.
Despite the possibilities AI offers, the relatively conservative pharma industry has traditionally proven resistant to change, albeit for good reasons.
to market, that doesn’t allow for very fast proof points,” says Roper. “As yet, we haven’t had the first completely AI-discovered drug come to market, but we are in a phase where people are starting to see other proof points and are buying into the concept.”
How AI is defining the future of drug discovery
AIcan
For example, an AI-powered tool can rapidly crunch through all the data ever published on the biology of a certain molecule, protein and disease or can use natural language processing, which allows a computer to read and interpret the data the same way our brains do. This can allow the rapid generation of novel insights, such as identifying a novel drug target for a previously untreated disease.
AI can speed up drug discovery, reduce costs, and complete tasks more accurately and precisely than traditional methods.
Recently, UK-based BenevolentAI used such a tool to find a drug candidate for treating Covid-19. It discovered that an existing drug called baricitinib, indicated for other diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, could have potential in treating Covid-19; and within a year, baricitinib was validated and used to treat seriously ill patients in hospitals.
There are a number of challenges surrounding AI adoption that L.E.K. is helping their clients to overcome, such as the desire for more proof that it’s going to help reduce R&D costs.
Paid for by L.E.K. Consulting
The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly utilising artificial intelligence (AI) to bring novel treatments to market more rapidly and at a reduced cost.
INTERVIEW WITH Stephen Roper L.E.K.Partner,Consulting
“If you think of a new drug cycle traditionally being 10 years from coming up with an idea to bringing that drug
Through developing practical and innovative strategies and plans to ultimately improve healthcare for patients and win in this dynamic market AI can be a game changer — and this is what the consultancy is focusing on. L.E.K. supports AI companies, pharma companies and investors: all of them have different perspectives on AI.
speed up drug discovery, reduce costs, and complete tasks more accurately and precisely than traditional methods.
INTERVIEW WITH Anne Dhulesia L.E.K.Partner,Consulting
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Anne Dhulesia, also a partner at L.E.K, says, “At the moment, it makes sense for pharma companies to partner with AI companies because it offers an alternative to the way they have been doing research and development until“Thenow.work we do with AI companies is to help them define what business model they should adopt. There is no single answer and the solutions we offer are very tailored to the company, its capabilities and its history.”
cancer care, harnessing the power of genomics is enabling a shift to personalised medicine through better diagnosis, determining responses to therapies, and raising outcomes by identifying treatments targeted to specific cancer types.
Leading UK healthcare through the power of genomics
This is a hugely exciting prospect and strongly aligned with ABHI’s vision to make health technologies accessible to all who need them when they are needed, allowing disease to be detected and treated earlier. In
Increased accessibility in healthcare
These are strong foundations for a thriving industrial sector in the UK, and subsequently, to scale across the globe. As the UK’s trade association for the healthtech sector, many of our members are already leading the field in this area, and the signs suggest that we are only beginning to scratch the surface as to what is possible. The genomics revolution is coming, and the UK is a genuine world leader.
Scientific and clinical research is making use of large troves of data and advances in bioinformatics, data science, and analytics to understand more about the human body and the progression of major diseases. This is used to develop new diagnostics
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A combination of the NHS and national institutions, a strong science and research base, a thriving life sciences industry, and private and public funding has allowed the UK to harness the potential of genomics to transform healthcare.
A revolutionary benefit to various sectors
WRITTEN BY Nishan Sunthares Managing Diagnostics,Director,ABHI
The UK is in a fantastic position to lead this revolution in science, technology, and healthcare delivery.
The United leadershipKingdom’singenomics is recognised globally, from the completion of the 100,000 Genomes Project to Covid-19 surveillance through genomic sequencing. Genome UK, which is the UK Government’s 10-year strategy for genomics, sets out an ambition for the UK to be the world’s most advanced genomic healthcare ecosystem. This presents opportunities to accelerate research, develop innovations in new technologies, and apply genomics in the clinical setting to diagnose diseases at an earlier stage, improve therapies, and predict and prevent diseases before they might appear.
The UK is in a fantastic position to lead this revolution in science, technology and healthcare delivery. Shared standards for collecting, storing and sharing genomic data across the entire UK genomics ecosystem to build and maintain trust in genomic healthcare are key enablers to delivering the ambition of the Genome UK strategy.
and therapeutics and to bring those benefits back into health care.
Finding suitable treatments
In the last few decades, technological advancements have meant the cost of sequencing a whole genome is driven down from £4 billion to below £1,000. The NHS Genomic Medicine Service across the four UK nations provides patients across the country with access to genetic tests. They support diagnosis and inform treatment decision-making for patients with cancer and rare diseases.
Secure data
Life sciences innovation is allowing us to understand and act on this knowledge. It is bringing advances in precision medicine that could transform the lives of patients and potentially offer cures.
Genomic technology is being adopted and applied across the globe at pace, and the ABPI is committed to working with system partners to drive forward these approaches for the benefit of all patients.
Reference 1. Genomics Beyond Health - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Life sciences innovation has the potential to deliver precision medicine to more people
medicine uses knowledge of a person’s underlying biology — their own particular genetic and molecular makeup — to work out the best, most targeted way to prevent, diagnose and treat disease.
One of these major advances has been in the field of genomics, in particular — genetic testing.
One of these major advances has been in the field of genomics, in particular — genetic testing.
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To ensure patients don’t miss out on this potentially life-changing research, the UK must be able to set up clinical trials quickly and safely and drive wider use of biomarkers for patients.
Genomics advancing care
Better access to genetic testing should also offer more patients the chance to take part in the research of new precision medicines, which require matching the right patient to the right clinical trial, relative to their genetic
Genetic data helps us understand the causes of disease and how to innovate the next generation of treatments.
To do this safely, trusted research environments can be set up to give scientists access to information, without the data ever leaving its secure storage location. The Government and the NHS need to continue to build trust with the patients and the public on the use of data for research and patient care.
WRITTEN BY Dr Jennifer Harris Director of Research Policy,
make-up.Toensure patients don’t miss out on this potentially lifechanging research, the UK must be able to set up clinical trials quickly and safely and drive wider use of biomarkers for patients.
WhatABPIdo we need to do to make precision medicine a reality?
New genetic tests are being introduced every year, so it is vital that this resource keeps pace with these developments and that healthcare professionals and laboratory staff have the right training to deliver the service to patients.
Precision
Once the mission is clear, the leader can set their vision (the aspirational future in the next five to ten years) and values (the way we do things). This helps gives staff a sense of hope and excitement about what the future might hold and provides guide rails for strategy (if it’s not supporting the vision, it’s probably not on-strategy).
Keeping employees
WRITTEN BY Stuart Rose Chief Officer,ExecutiveOBN
Arguably, working in life sciences and healthcare is the greatest purpose humans can have. What we do matters — to us, our families and society. Being clear about our role is worthy of time invested early on.
Setting goals early
What makes it hard for big businesses is overcome in the small technology sector:Changescale.ina large organisation is timeconsuming. Running a small business means they implement quickly and achieve results faster.
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Beneficial in business
A sound culture attracts and retains good staff (retention saves time and distractions are avoided). A robust and wellconsidered employee strategy therefore naturally enhances the chances of success.
Strategy (where to play and how to win) is well understood, but culture is more ethereal. Mission (purpose) is key. This clarifies why your business exists.
But in case anyone out there is thinking that it’s ‘OK’ to just develop a strategy – consider what business guru Peter Drucker said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Investing time in the important but not urgent things ultimately saves you time. In the case of being clear on culture and strategy, it could also mean the difference between survival and extinction.
many large corporations invest in culture and strategy, they don’t always get it right. Around 79% of leaders (from 6,000 surveyed) believed their strategy was not clear, differentiated or resourced enough. Two-thirds thought that their culture was holding them back.
When purpose and strategy are aligned with an employee’s sense of what is important, they are more likely to stay, be actively engaged and advocate the business’s activities. This means that leaders can focus on fundraising without being constantly distracted by crises and backfilling recruitment.
While
When they get it right, the results are impressive — three times more likely to outpace the market growth and twice as likely to have above-average profits.
Now, we know that culture and strategy are key to business growth and success.
Culture and strategy as the first duties of leadership
Culture, strategy and leadership are arguably the three most powerful things to get right in a business. The best leaders understand their importance and get these building blocks in place early.
Change in a large organisation is time-consuming. Running a small business means they implement quickly and achieve results faster.
In practice, this means encouraging and carving more space for the events, meetings and symposia that effectively connect communities and foster knowledge sharing. Such events will, no doubt, be the foundation of greater things to come.
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Collaboration propelling innovation
New technologies for better treatments
A wealth of innovations has come to the fore, benefiting every facet of drug development, and ultimately advancing the way we treat some of the rarest and most complex diseases. Automation, AI and machine learning — for example — are unlocking more agile, adaptable workflows in areas of drug discovery that have traditionally been prohibitively time and labour-intensive. Thanks to these advances, researchers are developing new drugs and improving clinical outcomes.
How innovation is unleashing the next life science revolution
WRITTEN BY Sanj Kumar CEO, The (ELRIG)&LaboratoryEuropeanResearchInnovationGroup
T
A wealth of innovations has come to the fore, benefiting every facet of drug development, and ultimately advancing the way we treat some of the rarest and most complex diseases.
Sustaining the speed and breadth of innovation — and translating new discoveries into better patient outcomes — requires the convergence of knowledge from all aspects of life sciences. Without a conduit through which knowledge can flow, we are less able to address challenges and risk slowing our pace.
Recently, we’ve seen dramatically accelerated progress in the life sciences sector. Advances in automation technologies and ensuring deeper and continued crossfunctional collaboration will be the key to its continuity.
he life sciences industry has always pursued new discoveries. And while progress has been growing in the last decade, the recent pandemic has revealed how we can better propel this pursuit: combining promising and proven technologies with deeper, broader collaboration.
Event in life sciences revolution Drug Discovery 2022: Driving the Next Life Sciences Revolution is ELRIG’s free flagship event. It provides a platform for the entire drug discovery industry to convene and discuss the advancements propelling the industry forward. This year, they have partnered with the British Pharmacology Society, the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening and the Royal Society of Chemistry to deliver a progressive two-day event focusing on what’s driving the next life sciences revolution.
More canaboutinformationtheeventbefoundat elrig.org
At the same time, we’ve seen leaps forward in several novel therapeutic approaches which offer excellent promise for addressing what were previously untreatable diseases. Advances in ‘in vivo expressed biologics’ and CRISPR-based therapeutic gene editing, for example, continue to propel the speed and scale of the cell and gene therapies.
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