The health and life sciences sector is at the heart of the UK’s economic and social prosperity and has vital strategic importance – contributing over £70bn a year in turnover and employing 240,900 people across the country. The importance of this sector has never been more evident than through the UK’s response to the pandemic. Industry, the government and the NHS worked hand in hand to develop, create and roll out health care products at a pace unseen in modern times. Yet, this is also a time of great challenge for the sector: uncertainty stemming from COVID-19, Brexit, and the NHS backlog continue to limit the impact of the life science sector.
The government has recognised the key role of the Health and Life Sciences – with ambitious plans to support sector growth.
The Life Science Vision
The Life Science Vision (LSV), first published in July 2021, provides a blueprint to build on the successes of COVID-19 and accelerate the delivery of lifechanging innovations to patients.
The Vision, co-developed by the Department of Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), key businesses and thought leaders, details a mission-led approach with bold ambition to support the sector over the next decade – learning from the cross-sectoral collaborations throughout the pandemic to assist the NHS in tackling the urgent health challenges of our generation.
The Vision outlines seven crucial healthcare missions for businesses and academia, along with the NHS and government, to solve. These missions are:
- Improving the understanding and diagnostics of neurodegeneration and dementia
- Understanding of mental health conditions
- Enabling early diagnosis and treatments for cancer (including immune therapies)
- Treating and preventing cardiovascular diseases and the high-risk behaviours associated with it, including physical inactivity, smoking and obesity
- Sustaining UK vaccine discovery, development, and production
- Reducing the disease burden from respiratory diseases
- Addressing the underlying biology of ageing.
The government has set up four key preconditions to measure the success of the Vision:
- Establishing the NHS as an innovation partner
- Improving investment incentives
- Advancing the UK’s usage of health data
- Improving the sectors access funds.
What’s next:
Earlier this year, the CBI launched Protect and grow UK Health and Life Sciences, a new Health and Life Science’s Campaign that calls for:
- The implementation of the Life Science sector Vision
- Delivery of the government’s health policy commitments
- Greater collaboration between health services, regulators, industry, and academia to address the healthcare missions impacting on patient health and NHS capacity.
