£500m of new investments from life science sector announced

The Prime Minister welcomes nearly £500m of new investment from the Biopharmaceutical sector today.

The investment aims to create at least 420 high-skilled jobs and drive economic prosperity across the UK.

Also, the Prime Minister will today convene the Biopharmaceutical CEO Roundtable of global industry leaders – including AstraZeneca, GSK and Pfizer.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “With scientists around the world working tirelessly to learn more about the Omicron variant, we have never been more indebted to the extraordinary power of Life Sciences.

“Today I am bringing global industry leaders together to discuss our renewed efforts against Covid-19, while ensuring we are better equipped to tackle future healthcare challenges.

“As we press ahead with our goal to become a science superpower, the new investments made today will help us forge life-changing breakthroughs against other diseases, such as cancer and dementia, while creating hundreds of high-skilled jobs across the country.”

The individual investments secured today include:

• £400m from Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies to create the largest biopharmaceutical manufacturing site in the UK.

• £30m from GSK to deepen understanding of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and improve the success and speed of R&D of new medicines using advanced technologies.

• £17m from Bristol Myers Squibb to expand their headquarters to accommodate global drug development in data science and biometrics.

• £11.7m from J&J for a new digital surgery ecosystem in Leeds;

• £1.5 million from Roche for a blood test evaluation programme that will genomically profile lung cancer.