Influencing and shaping our sector | BIA update: April - July 2022
The BioIndustry Association (BIA) continues to represent our members’ voices at the highest levels through our policy and influencing work. This quarterly update gives an overview of key policy developments and BIA’s continued involvement with policymakers, regulatory authorities and wider stakeholders on behalf of the UK life sciences sector, from April to July 2022.
This quarter, BIA continued to work with government partners to realise the ambition of the Life Science Vision by contributing to the production of a roadmap for its delivery, due in the autumn. Our annual Parliament Day in June saw an intense day of influencing and networking for our members with parliamentarians and senior government stakeholders in Westminster, topped by a lunchtime address from then-Minister George Freeman. We launched an Innovation Map to help early-stage life sciences companies find the right support, developed an engineering biology brochure with the Department for International Trade, and our latest quarterly finance report shows investment in the life sciences sector continued despite a global investment slowdown across sectors.
BIA has also represented members’ and the sector’s interests in numerous government reviews and consultations. Our CEO Steve Bates discussed the need to increase pension funds’ investment in our sector with Pensions Minister Guy Opperman. With the Treasury, we voiced our view that a lack of UK venture capital funds poses a threat to the long-term sustainability of the life sciences sector in the UK, continued to call for capital expenditure to be included within R&D tax credits, and represented life sciences SMEs’ views on the apprenticeship levy. We engaged with the Home Office to make the new scale-up visa work for our sector, and with the Office for Life Sciences to guide the implementation of the Genome UK strategy.
Download Influencing and shaping our sector - BIA update (April - July 2022) report for further details on the BIA’s work this quarter.
