Innovate UK boss hails life sciences clusters

The head of the UK's innovation agency praises engagement with innovators ahead of his key note speech at next week's Scottish Life Sciences Summit.

HAVING active life sciences clusters throughout the UK is promoting innovation, economic development, and sustainable growth, while also addressing big societal challenges such as better health for all, according to the chief executive of Innovate UK.

Indro Mukerjee, who took over as head of the UK’s innovation agency in 2021, said that his organisation is developing programmes across the UK’s nations and regions to make opportunities more accessible, no matter where companies are located.

“Innovate UK’s vision is to enable people to live longer healthier lives by driving transformational change and realise the UK’s position as a world-leader in life sciences,” he explained.

“Innovate UK collaborates extensively across the innovation ecosystem in service of sectors growth and productivity.

“Our efforts are focused on expanding outreach and fostering engagement with innovators, innovative businesses, innovation hubs, and innovation clusters, wherever they are in the UK.

“Through our online resources, increased investment in Catapults, our sector-focused innovation centres, and Business Connect and Business Growth services, Innovate UK is actively contributing to nationwide productivity and growth.”

Working in partnership to build clusters

Mukerjee also highlighted the important role that higher education institutions and research centres can play in developing the life sciences sector.

“Collaboration between universities, colleges, and other stakeholders is essential for driving innovation, economic growth, and regional development in the UK,” he said.

“We recognise the world-leading life science research capability, and our focus is to translate even more of this to drive growth.

“Educational institutions provide research expertise, talent development, knowledge transfer, entrepreneurship support, collaborative partnerships, infrastructure, and community engagement.

“Most of all, they are often the sources of great ideas that go on to become great business innovation, driving productivity and economic growth.”

He added: “The BioMedical Catalyst is the primary Innovate UK grant funding mechanism for supporting UK health and life sciences small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

“Technology-agnostic and open to human health and life science SMEs with innovative ideas, it represents a £300 million investment that we have already made through sector-focused grant schemes, showcasing our commitment to this sector.

“Throughout the Innovate UK ecosystem, we are committed to investing more than £600m in healthy living and agriculture initiatives during the spending review period, leveraging strategic funding, and by fostering innovation through our challenges.”

Focus on Aberdeen's growing cluster

Mukerjee’s comments came ahead of The Times & Sunday Times Scottish Life Sciences Summit in Aberdeen next Wednesday, at which he will deliver the keynote address. [link to https://times-event.com/lifesc...]

Entrepreneurs, scientists, and other industry leaders will gather at the King’s College Conference Centre to hear from a range of speakers, including investors from Deepbridge Capital, Epidarex, and LifeArc Ventures.

Topics under discussion will include the development of the life sciences cluster around the city, including the recent opening of the £40m Opportunity North East (ONE) BioHub.

Deborah O’Neil, chair of the life sciences board at ONE and BioAberdeen Ltd, and founder and CEO of Novabiotics, said: “Through ONE’s life sciences activity and ONE BioHub, the northeast of Scotland is delivering on Innovate UK’s vision of innovation, company creation and delivering economic impact and is doing so by transforming the commercial life science ecosystem in the region.

“Collaboration is a crucial part of that; we have a global vision, so international and UK connections are important, as are essential interactions with the academic researchers and clinicians with whom the region’s therapeutics, diagnostics, digital health, and device companies – ONE BioHub’s tenants – will be co-located on the Foresterhill health campus.

“Aberdeen will play an increasingly important role in the UK’s bioeconomy as our local cluster develops further in the years ahead.

“We hope that partnerships with Innovate UK will contribute to that, and we are delighted that Indro Mukerjee and colleagues are joining us at this year’s life sciences summit.”

Attracting people from throughout the UK

One of the successful life sciences companies that already calls Aberdeen home is Elasmogen, which was spun out from the University of Aberdeen in 2016.

Elasmogen is developing antibody-like molecules called “solomers” to deliver treatments for autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and to deliver both chemotherapy and radiotherapy in more targeted ways.

In 2022, the company secured an £8m investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF), Scottish Enterprise, and the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB).

“That funding has allowed us to expand our team, including Rob Boyd as vice president of research and development (R&D),” explained Dr Caroline Barelle, co-founder and chief executive at Elasmogen.

“Rob is based in Oxford but wants to work with us in Aberdeen because he’s so passionate about our technology and our team.”

Elasmogen has also tapped into expertise from the south of the Border to strengthen its board, with Jane Dancer taking over as chair last summer [2023] and Rod Richards joining as a non-executive director.

Dancer held senior business development roles at Cellzome, F-star, and MedImmune – formerly Cambridge Antibody Technologies – while Richards built and sold three life sciences businesses: VHsquared, PharmaKodex, and Microscience.

“We’ve managed to extract golden people from the golden triangle,” Barelle smiled.

Barelle reeled off a long list of reasons that keeps her company in Aberdeen, rather than relocating to other parts of the UK, including the presence of Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen, access to the Foresterhill hospital campus, and the “collegiate” nature of the life sciences cluster.

“What’s making the difference now is having ONE attracting investment to the area – including in terms of bricks and mortar like the ONE BioHub – and also acting as a focus to help build the ecosystem,” she added.

Using Aberdeen for international growth

Having close connections to the University of Aberdeen is one of the reasons why TauRx Pharmaceuticals has its operational base in the Granite City.

“We’re a R&D company at heart and Aberdeen is our home,” said commercial director Rebecca Andersen.

“Obviously, it was the energy sector that put Aberdeen on the global map, but we’re now starting to see increasing success from early-stage spin-out companies and growing life sciences companies here too.”

Andersen said that developments in technology and changes in working patterns were now helping to overcome challenges with recruitment.

“We all no longer need to be in the same place for five days each week, and so that opens up opportunities for recruitment – we’re looking at global markets for unmet medical needs, and so our workforce could be anywhere in the world too,” she said.

TauRx – which conducts research into Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions – was founded in 2002, and has twin bases in Aberdeen and Singapore, with many of its shareholders based in South-East Asia.

Claude Wischik – the company’s chairman, chief executive, and co-founder – is also professor of old age psychiatry at the University of Aberdeen.

“Home is where the heart is – and that will always be Aberdeen for us,” said Andersen.

“But we don’t consider that to be a limiting factor to our growth and success.
“Why move when we have what we need here? We have our core operational teams here and the university infrastructure supporting our R&D activities.

“If we were based in the ‘golden triangle’ then we might have greater access to a different investor network, but ultimately our science wouldn’t be different, our clinical trials output wouldn’t be different, and our conversations with regulators and payers in the future wouldn’t change.”