The UK life science sector has received £3 billion in investment in just a year, creating jobs and faster patient treatments, and bolstering confidence.

The UK life sciences sector has attracted more than £3 billion in new public and private investment in just 12 months, in the latest attempt to secure the country as a global leader in the science, innovation and health ecosystem.

The financial win, announced before Andy Burnham took over as prime minister, will mean patients nationwide can benefit from new drugs, including the world’s first-ever immunotherapy for Type 1 diabetes, and faster access to lifesaving medicines.

The finances also contribute to ambitions to support 66,000 additional roles in the sector across the country by 2035.

Within an NHS shouldering significant waiting times, it was promising that the overall average waiting time to set up clinical trials dropped from 169 to 122 days in the first half of 2025 to 2026. Patients are also expected to access new medicines up to six months sooner under the new joint approval process between the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Private providers 

Private companies have contributed greatly, from a £300 million backing from AstraZeneca to support operations in Cambridge and Macclesfield using artificial intelligence to discover new drugs, to Moderna opening an innovation centre in Oxfordshire with a £1 billion UK research and development investment commitment spanning the next decade.

Starmer’s government also updated its Life Sciences Sector Plan earlier this month to outline plans for the UK to gain the title of the third largest life sciences economy in the world by 2035.

“In its first year, our Life Sciences Sector Plan is delivering cutting-edge treatments to tackle cancer, new opportunities for British businesses to start up and grow and well-paid jobs that improve lives for families,” said then-science, innovation and technology secretary Liz Kendall.

The life sciences sector is also generating around £147 billion in turnover and employing 360,000 people, almost half of whom are based outside of London, the East and South East of England.