£160m funding for life sciences to be launched
The Government is to announce details of £160m of funding for the life sciences sector at a major policy event in Birmingham today.
Business Secretary Greg Clark and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will both be at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Translational Medicine to hear Sir John Bell outline the findings of his independent review into the life sciences industry.
The review will “inform the basis of Government work” with the £64bn sector towards a sector deal in the coming months.
Sir John will tell the audience that “the vision for the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy is an ambitious one”, setting out proposals for how the UK can continue to capitalise on its strengths in the sector, both to encourage economic growth and to improve health outcomes for patients.
“We have created a strategy which capitalises on our strong science base to further build the industry into a globally-unique and internationally competitive life sciences eco-system, supported by collaboration across industry, Government, the NHS, academia, and research funders to deliver health and wealth,” he is expected to say.
The funding being announced today is the first phase of the Government’s investment in life sciences through the Industrial Strategy, with £146m for leading-edge healthcare. That investment is forecast to leverage more than £250m of private funding from industry.
This investment, part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, will be spread over four years and covers five major projects supporting advanced therapies, advanced medicines and vaccines development and manufacturing.
These projects include a £13m Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre, which will be decided by a competition, and a £30m investment in three sites to create an Advanced Therapies Treatment Centre.
In addition, there will also be £14m funding to support 11 medical technology research centres to encourage collaboration between the NHS and industry in developing and bringing new technologies to patients through the National Institute for Health Research.
