Life Sciences: Private Investment
(Birmingham, Northfield)
(Con)
3. What steps her Department is taking to help the life sciences
industry attract private investment.
The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
()
The UK’s life sciences sector is key to creating highly skilled
jobs across the UK and cementing the UK’s role as a science
superpower, as my hon. Friend the Minister for Science, Research
and Innovation, a doughty champion of life sciences, has just set
out. We have a life sciences vision, which sets out our ambition
to develop a globally competitive investment ecosystem in the UK,
and we will bring forward further measures to support the sector
in the coming weeks. A great example is the life sciences
investment programme, a £200 million initiative that is expected
to attract at least double that in private investment.
Post pandemic, there has been a significant advance in attracting
new pharma to the United Kingdom. Will the Secretary of State
join me in welcoming the hugely significant partnership with
Moderna as a sign of confidence in the United Kingdom? It will
bring much-needed jobs and investment to the whole of the UK, and
hopefully to Birmingham in particular.
Yes, I do of course join my hon. Friend in welcoming that
investment. As he sets out, our goal is to ensure that the UK is
the most attractive environment possible for life sciences
investment, and we are doing a range of things to help achieve
that. We can see exciting innovations coming into the UK as a
result, including one I am very excited about that is due this
year: greater personalisation in cancer drugs.
(Blackley and Broughton)
(Lab)
It is a delight to see the right hon. Lady in her new position.
As a previous member of the Select Committee on Science and
Technology, at least she will know something about science.
I would like to believe the story that is being told about this
country being a life sciences superpower, but I am sure the right
hon. Lady will have noted the comments in January of Kate
Bingham, the chair of the vaccine taskforce. She said that the
lessons from that taskforce had not been learned, and that this
country was falling behind. She gave evidence of AstraZeneca and
GlaxoSmithKline investing outside this country because civil
servants had not learned those lessons and had created a hostile
environment for such companies.
I can understand that point, and I take this opportunity to pay
tribute to Kate Bingham for her past work on the vaccine
taskforce. We have created the new Department for Science,
Innovation and Technology so that we can drive forward science,
and life sciences as part of that, as a force for good. More on
this agenda will be set out in the coming weeks, because we have
the opportunity to continue to ensure the UK’s leadership on it.
That is my priority and that of all of my team.
(Cambridge) (Lab)
The life sciences sector is very exercised by the unintended but
very high levy being paid to the Government for branded medicines
in the NHS. The risk is that investment and jobs will go
elsewhere, so what is the Secretary of State doing to make sure
that that does not happen?
We are negotiating hard on this. Obviously, the negotiations are
sensitive at this time, but we are aware of the fact that we are
ahead and we want to stay ahead in life sciences, which are part
of our key technologies.
