Revealed: London life sciences investment nears £1bn in 2017

Investment in London’s life sciences businesses almost hit £1bn in 2017, according to new figures.

Data revealed today (January 29) by MedCity showed that £2.8bn was invested in the UK’s life sciences sector last year.

Of that total, 63% landed in in The Golden Triangle zone between Cambridge, Oxford and London, with the capital alone seeing £909m.

Among the biggest deals of the year were biotech firm Orchard Therapeutics’ raising of $110m (c.£77m) in series B funding and immunotherapy business Autolus securing $80m (c.£56m).

Elsewhere, Imperial College London spin-out Cell Medica closed a £60m Series C round. Cell and gene therapies companies were found to have attracted some of the biggest investments.

MedCity, which compiled the figures using information from the PitchBook database, represents a collaboration between the Mayor and the London element of The Golden Triangle – Imperial College, King’s College and University College.

Sarah Haywood, CEO at MedCity, said: “The pace of innovation in the life sciences sector, from genomics to digital health and gene therapies, coupled with a fertile funding environment and supportive regulatory system, has helped fuel this record investment into companies across London, Cambridge and Oxford.

“The enthusiasm for UK life sciences is encouraging new UK and global investors to plough money into our resilient sector and its spread of life sciences companies.”