PharmaBoardroom Releases 'Healthcare and Life Sciences Review UK' September 2018 Pharma Report

LONDON, September 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

PharmaBoardroom today releases its new 67-page pharma report, Healthcare & Life Sciences Review UK 2018

The UK, despite myriad uncertainties around its decision to leave the European Union, still stands as one of the world's premier life science investment destinations. With heavyweight medical science infrastructure and a well-earned reputation for elite-level innovation, the key industry stakeholders featured in PharmaBoardroom's latest report, Healthcare and Life Sciences Review UK 2018, explore how the nation is attempting to re-position itself post-Brexit; noting both the challenges and the opportunities of a unique situation.

One of the main topics covered in the report is the implications of the government's ambitious 'Life Sciences Industrial Strategy' and subsequent 'Sector Deal' with industry which calls for an increase in conventional research funding, initiatives to boost home-grown pharma manufacturing, bringing an additional 2,000 discovery scientists to the UK and the setting up of high-risk, high-reward "moonshot" projects in emerging disciplines.

The report also examines the ways in which multinational companies such as AstraZeneca, Roche, Novartis and Pfizer are continuing to invest in British R&D, as well as the inimitable UK National Health Service (NHS) - whose CEO Simon Stevens spoke to us exclusively on the venerable institution's 70th anniversary - and how it interplays with the country's innovation ecosystem.

Other key issues examined are the uniquely prominent role played by British medical research charities, which poured GBP 1.6 billion (USD 2.1 billion) into medical research in 2017, the 'catapult' organizations set up to propel innovation forward in cell and gene therapy among other niches and the continuing attractiveness of the UK as a manufacturing base for Big Pharma, mid-cap European firms, as well as specialty contract manufacturing organizations.

HCLS Review UK also contains geostrategic examinations of what the country has to offer both inside the 'Golden Triangle' of Oxford, Cambridge and London - which boasts 600 life science companies with a combined market capitalization of GBP 5.7 billion (USD 7.5 billion) - and outside, notably in Scotland which has gained a well-earned reputation as a hub for companies involved in innovative cell and gene therapies.

Naturally, the picture is not completely rosy, and the UK faces a number of challenges, notably from the Brexit fallout, with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) having announced its relocation to Amsterdam. An underfunded and strained NHS is already slow to uptake innovative treatments, especially in areas such as rare diseases - a situation that stands to potentially be exacerbated by de-alignment from EMA norms - severely affecting British patients' ability to access potentially lifesaving treatments.

However, through the comments of government representatives, including NHS England CEO Simon Stvens and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health Lord O'Shaughnessy seasoned industry commentators, the country managers of Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, homegrown entrepreneurs and research scientists, a picture emerges of a country in flux but set to retain its place at the top table of international science and innovation.

Click here to register for free and download the report.