Back to the Future: The Emerging UK Biotech Hub

Move over Boston and San Francisco. Occam’s global Life Sciences practice reflects an entrepreneurial resurgence in London and those ancient and honorable centers of learning - Oxford and Cambridge. London seems to be particularly animated around the intersection of AI/ML and drug discovery/development.

Historically, the biotech industry has been spawned by a confluence of factors. First of all: scientific innovation in academia. The excellence of Harvard and MIT constitutes one locus and Stanford/UCSF/Berkeley axis the other. This intellectual foundation was profoundly complemented by commercial infrastructure manifested in the early emergence of biotech companies. In the case of Massachusetts: Genetics Institute, Biogen and Genzyme. In California: Genentech, Amgen and Gilead.

Thus, these two epicenters were simultaneously inspired by concentrations of scientific genius and the emergence of precocious executive leadership to make for successful biotech cultures. Let’s not forget the longstanding presence of the far-sighted venture capitalists in the two locales to make the wondrous ambition economically possible. This perfect storm transpired in both Massachusetts and California.

In the UK more recently, a similar confluence of forces has made us reflect on where it all began with Watson, Crick and Rosalind Franklin. There is the influence of the success of DeepMind and Exscientia as centers of creative thinking around the automation of drug discovery which has produced a rich group of entrepreneurs. The other energizing element in the UK market derives from the increasing proactivity of excellent scientific universities to spin out and commercialize technology and with the enduring support of such local VCs as SV Life Sciences and the British government.

Occam’s European practice has grown radically with clients such as Relation, Charm Therapeutics, Evonetix, Chemify, LabGenius, Peptone and Nucleome, as well as key assignments in AI/ML for such major Pharmas as GSK. The UK biotech future is brilliant.