Greater Birmingham could become a leading location for life sciences – report
AN independent Life Sciences Commission initiated earlier this year by the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP), has suggested the area could become a centre of excellence for the sector.
Chaired by Birmingham businessman Graham Silk, who is also co-founder of the city-based Cure Leukaemia charity and Patients4Data, the Commission has highlighted Greater Birmingham’s potential to become a world-leading location for the rapid assessment of new drugs, diagnostics and devices.
The Commission identified that Birmingham is playing a leading role in developing new models for accelerated clinical trials, which are providing patients with blood cancers earlier access to new drugs, at no cost to the NHS.
It also notes that the new Institute of Translational Medicine being developed at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, which opens this month, will extend these models to other diseases including solid tumours and rare, auto-immune and chronic diseases.
The Commission has identified a number of areas where local partners, in conjunction with the Government and industry, need to work together to unlock Greater Birmingham’s potential around life sciences.
This includes increasing the involvement of academic and health partners in translating medical innovations into new treatments for patients, and to develop new ways of financing this activity.
The Commission also recommends investment in patient data systems, education & training, and support for small businesses looking to enter the life sciences and healthcare markets.
Silk said: “Birmingham has a number of important and unique strengths to offer as a location for clinical trials, particularly in light of its leading accelerated early phase trials models.
“In addition, we have fast and easy access to a large and diverse patient population of 5.6m, effectively the same number of people as in Scotland, but with the diverse profile of the whole world, all within a one hour travel time.
“Combining this with our numerous clinical and academic centres of excellence in a wide range of disease areas and genomics capabilities, we are in an extremely strong position to exploit this opportunity.”
Minister for life sciences George Freeman said: “Government is backing the Midlands as an engine for growth and this report sets out an exciting vision of the growing role that the Greater Birmingham cluster is playing in the fast emerging field of 21st Century life and health sciences.”
