Influencing and shaping our sector BIA update Q2 2021

BIA’s ongoing engagement enables our members’ voices to be heard at the highest levels. This quarterly update gives an overview of key policy developments and the BIA’s continued engagement with policymakers, regulatory authorities and wider stakeholders on behalf of the UK life sciences sector, from May to July 2021.

The quarter was dominated by the production of the Government’s new Life Sciences Vision, launched on 7 July, which the BIA has had a leading role in shaping, supported by a wide range of members who made themselves available to attend government-industry roundtables and deep-dive meetings. The BIA secured a new Life Sciences Scale-Up Taskforce and support for genomics SMEs, among other initiatives.   

We published new finance data for the UK biotech sector which showed that 2021 is on track to be another record-breaking fundraising year. This will be complemented by a new £30m Biomedical Catalyst competition in 2021 following the BIA’s campaign for a refill. We continued to address ongoing challenges for medicines regulation resulting from the Northern Ireland Protocol, and published an influential report on the public’s support for increasing patients’ access to innovative medicines for rare diseases through the NHS.