Will the strategy make the UK a world centre for medical innovation?
Business Secretary Greg Clark has announced a £146m investment in ‘leading-edge’ healthcare.
The move came as the government launched its Life sciences industrial strategy. The investment is expected to leverage £250m of private industry funding.
The strategy contains proposals on the long-term future of the UK’s £64bn life sciences industry. It was unveiled at Birmingham University by Oxford University’s regius professor of medicine Sir John Bell.
Charities, businesses, healthcare groups, and global companies such as Johnson and Johnson, AstraZeneca and GSK were involved in creating the strategy, which will be used by the government to form a sector deal between itself and industry.
The strategy proposes building on the UK’s strengths in five areas: science, growth, NHS, data and skills. It also recommends the setting up of the healthcare advanced research programme (HARP), where industries, charities and the NHS can collaborate on long-term UK-based projects to use medical trends of the next 20 years to transform healthcare.
Further information
Gov.uk: Sir John Bell to unveil industry-led proposals to build UK’s status as world leader in life sciences
UK BioIndustry Association: BIA responds to life sciences industrial strategy