Earlier this month, LightOx was invited by the Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) to take part in a life sciences showcase event in Parliament. LightOx’s CEO, Dr Sam Whitehouse, explains why he wants the business to play a part in highlighting the importance of early support for life sciences companies – wherever in the UK they are located.
When we founded LightOx, we took part in an accelerator programme based out of Alderley Park where the MDC are based and this was designed to speed up the development of new drugs, and catapult new innovations to market. Since then, we’ve come full circle and were honoured to be selected, along with three other life sciences companies, to showcase the results of this support to an audience of MPs in Parliament.
The MDC exists to accelerate the progress of UK companies developing new medicines through the pathway of pre-clinical work and through into clinic and ultimately onto market. It is part of UKRI – the UK’s Catapult Network and so far has supported more than 300 innovators, helping them raise over £1 bn of R&D investment and supporting them to take five new drugs to clinical trials.
The impact of early support
The support of catapults like this is helpful for the growth of the life sciences sector, allowing access to both expertise, knowledge and facilities and it has helped LightOx along our journey to become what it is today – a growth company developing ground-breaking treatments which will improve millions of people’s lives. It’s helped us to attract major investment and accelerate the progression of our products to market.
I believe it’s important that we play a part in demonstrating the impact of early-stage support to businesses and demonstrate the successes of this work back to Parliament, as so often this sector of innovation and life sciences, and pharmaceuticals is overlooked. I also believe that we all need to do more to shout about our successes on the international stage and to highlight the contribution that our sector makes to the economy.
A £20 bn contribution to the UK economy
According to research by Imperial College London, biopharma R&D and manufacturing is one of the UK’s leading industrial sectors, responsible for around 140,000 jobs. It contributes a gross value added (GVA) of around £20 billion annually to the UK economy.
The sector is home to innovative businesses that create new jobs and position the UK as a global competitor. And this isn’t only happening in London and the South East, it’s happening all over the country and is central to us being an innovation economy.
Looking ahead, continued investment in life sciences innovation – across all the regions – will be key to maintaining the UK’s competitive edge on the global stage. And LightOx will be playing its part in advocating for the importance of government support for the sector.
