Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced a £650m funding package for the UK’s life sciences ecosystem.
The life science funding will see £250m allocated to encourage investment in science and tech businesses from pension schemes.
Another focus of the fund is using £154m to expand the UK’s biological data bank and £121m to speed up clinical trials.
Hunt said: “These are businesses that are growing our economy while having much wider benefits for our health – and this multi-million-pound investment will help them go even further.”
Scientific innovation for “future health emergencies” will receive £48m of the funding pot.
The life sciences sector – which includes biotech companies like Oxford Nanopore – was worth over £94bn to the UK economy in 2021, up 9% on the year prior.
Additional plans from the chancellor are to reignite the Academic Health Science Network into Health Innovation Networks, in an attempt to encourage collaboration in the medical space.
Hunt’s Health Innovation Networks are expected to see planning rules overhauled in a bid to create more lab space, along with changes to East West Rail for better Oxford and Cambridge connections.
Last week the government laid out its much-anticipated semiconductor strategy, which will see up to £1bn invested over 10 years.
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