Bell sounds but is anyone listening - Recommendations for the Future of the British Life Sciences Industry

Jane Lambert

The life sciences industry makes a lot of work for my branch of the legal services industry so when Professor Sir John Bell, the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, delivered a report to the government on a strategy for life sciences, we were full of anticipation.  The life sciences industry was one of a handful of sectors that were identified as engines of growth in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's green paper, Building our Industrial Strategy, earlier this year (see page 97) and Sir John's work was specifically welcomed in that consultation document (see pages 102 and 105).

Sir John has now delivered his report, Life Sciences Industrial Strategy – A report to the Government from the life sciences sector, at the Institute of Translational Medicine of the University of Birmingham in the presence of Greg Clark MP, Secretary of State for Business and Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Health (see the University's press release Major life sciences investment announced at the Institute of Translational Medicine 30 Aug 2017).

In his report, Sir John made a number of important recommendations which if implemented could lead to important discoveries, inventions and innovation:

• Establishing a Health Advanced Research Programme (HARP) which would require a coalition of funders for research in genomics,  effective diagnostics for early, asymptomatic chronic disease, digitalization and AI to transform pathology and imaging and healthy ageing and could lead to the creation of 2 or 3 entirely new industries within the next 10 years;
• Sustaining and increasing funding for basic science to match our international competition;
• Improving clinical trial capabilities;
• Ensuring the tax system fosters growth in this sector;
• Supporting the growth of life sciences clusters;
• Attracting substantial investment to manufacturing and exporting high-value the life science products of the future;
• Adopting previous recommendations on NHS collaboration;
• Establishing 2 to 5 digital innovation hubs providing data across regions of 3 to 5 million people;
• Establishing an immigration system that allows the UK to recruit and retain talent from the remaining EU states and beyond; and
• Developing and delivering a reinforced skills action plan across the NHS, commercial and third sectors based on a gap analysis of key skills for science.

Some of those recommendations will be easy for the government to accept but others such as tax reform and immigration seem to be contrary to its declared policies. It is obvious that the recommendations have to be accepted as a package if the strategy is to succeed but, in the present political climate, it is uncertain whether they will or indeed can be.

Both ministers announced investment in translational medicine during their visits to Birmingham which I shall discuss in NIPC West Midlands in due course.

Should anyone wish to discuss Sir John's report, the ministers' announcements or life sciences patents generally, he or she should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.