LifeSciences
Executive Summary
3 main sectors are:
- Pharmaceuticals,
- Medical biotechnology,
- Medical technology.
QS World University Rankings – Cambridge top in 2010 (2nd for Life Sciences)
Patent Cliff
End of the patent period for a number of ‘blockbuster’ drugs over the next few years. The Office for Life Sciences (OLS) estimates that this will be the equivalent of $140 billion in sales.
Complexity
Industry structure is a complex interplay between sectors, sub-sectors, support sectors, regulators, academia, academic spin out and industry.
Lengthy and precarious product development timescales for new products and complex development of medical devices; high levels of technological uncertainty; high research and development (R&D) intensity; high development costs and up-front investment, unique intellectual property rights and a distinct funding cycle in product development.
Not withstanding cost implications, and of course NICE regulations about testing and quality, there is also the question about using a government monopoly (NHS) to “assist” a sector. However new treatments save lives and can dramatically improve recovery rates.
Size
6,500 organisations employing around 191,000 employees…. growing at an average annual rate of 1.3%.
Mostly SMEs, but pharmaceutical sector dominated by large corporates. 66% of companies employ 1-24 people which = 8% of total workforce whereas only 8% of the industry comprises companies employing more than 250 employees, and yet this accounts for 61% of the total workforce.
Range
It is an industry that spans academia, academic spin out, SMEs and large corporate companies. In 11% of cases businesses describe themselves as a University Spin-Out Company. Businesses in Science and Engineering Research and Development are significantly more likely to be University spin-out companies (22%), than compared with businesses in Pharmaceuticals (8%) or Manufacturers of Medical and Surgical equipment (4%).
Greater Cambridge
UK’s leading Bioscience cluster and most developed biotech cluster in Europe. It is made up of more than 185 biotech companies, 17 of the UK’s publicly quoted biotech companies and a quarter of the public biotech companies in Europe. Over 250 service providers support these companies. There are more than 30 university research institutes and 20 international pharmaceutical companies.
Greater Cambridge has a world class reputation for Bioscience, strongly supported by Cambridge University which has been home to 20% of the world’s Nobel Prize winners in medicine and chemistry.
Sector Support
One Nucleus was formed in April 2010 by the merger of two regional life science networks – Cambridge-based ERBI and the London Biotechnology Network (LBN). The merger of ERBI and LBN recognises that the Cambridge-London network is an international life science “super cluster”.
People in Life Sciences
Many bioscience start-ups in the UK originate from academia. As such the founders are often academics who do not necessarily want to run a company or have all the skills to become the Chief Executive Officer. A model developed by universities is to place experienced ‘launch CEOs’ with the company to take it through these early stages although this has had varying success.
Many scientists and top managers leave the UK to work in the US or in the major European bioscience clusters
A-level and Undergraduate Entry
The number of students studying chemistry, biology and maths at ‘A’ level or equivalent has risen (by 11.6%, 8.6% and 20.1% respectively) over the last five years, and applications to study Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects at HE level are increasing.
Skills Shortages
SEMTA continues to boldly state on its overview web-page of the sector that “39% of bioscience companies report hard-to-fill vacancies and 22% have skills shortages - five times greater than other sectors.” This is in contrast to the most recent Labour Market research 2009 by SEMTA/Cogent which suggests that only 10% of all establishments in the sector have HFVs
Skills Gaps
The sector is highly skilled but this obscures the fact that many SME managers and innovators have little knowledge of the world of commerce. In larger companies this is not a problem because there are robust internal processes, support systems, and training options available to bright graduates. But in SMEs this skills deficiency can be a genuine barrier to commercial progress.
Equally, one should not assume that highly skilled means appropriately skilled, and there are many examples of companies employing PhD graduates to undertake quite basic technician tasks.
Recommendations
This report suggests that there are several areas of improvement which need addressing and offers the following recommendations:
- Continue to build on STEM subject uptake at undergraduate level;
- Gear education to industry earlier;
- Provide more information for students about the Industry and job roles;
- “Selling” the Greater Cambridge Cluster opportunities to students;
- Encourage increased collaboration between HE courses and Industry, resulting in more students with work experience, intern opportunities (free work) for industry;
- Academic Spin-outs – Useful for MSC/PhD/Post Doc work experience, sector research, innovation and university finances.
- Develop and deliver short courses, seminars, workshops focussing on commercial skills for those already in the industry.
- Beyond commercial skills – Working with One Nucleus, develop a programme of courses that help companies with regulation procedures, best ways to work with NICE for example, patent updates, and accessing funding.
- Ensure that non-technical, non professional roles are not left out of the skills equation for the sector
- Explore ways to match up the demand for technical craft level skills in the sector with available government funded supply of skills – with particular reference to the Higher Skills @ Work fund and adult apprenticeships.
