UK’s £1B life science strategy hones in on mental health and aging

12 Jul 2021 --- The UK government is making £1 billion (US$1.4 billion) funding available to life science companies as part of its new ten-year strategy, dubbed the “Life Sciences Vision.” Addressing mental health and aging are key focus areas, as well as tackling diseases, such as obesity and dementia.

“We’re going to build a pro-enterprise environment where our life sciences firms can access the finance to grow, are incentivized to onshore manufacturing and can commercialize breakthrough products right here in the UK – rather than elsewhere – as we cement the UK’s position as a science superpower,” says business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.

The strategy was developed in collaboration with a host of companies, charities and research bodies, including AstraZeneca, British Heart Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, Kyowa Kirin, Novabiotics, Quadram Institute and Pfizer. 

Bolstering funding
The government highlights regulation, skills, manufacturing, access to finance, and trade and investment as the four areas critical to making the UK an attractive location for life science businesses.

The strategy is positioned as building on the “successes of COVID-19 response” and accelerating the delivery of innovations to patients.Specifically, the government is providing £200 million (US$277 million) through the Life Sciences Investment Program. In addition, through the UK-UAE Sovereign Investment Partnership, investment company Mubadala has made an £800 million (US$1.1 billion) commitment to the sector. 

Work is also underway to support greater investment into the Life Sciences by institutional investors and pension funds. 

“The ten-year vision provides a much-needed framework that will aid not just health but the economy too. Confirmation of the ongoing commitment to achieving collective expenditure of 2.4 percent of GDP on research is very welcome,” comments Dr. Mark Downs, chief executive, Royal Society of Biology.

Emphasis on mental health
One of the strategy’s focus points is increasing the understanding of mental health conditions, including work to redefine diseases and develop tools to address them.

“It is both significant and welcome that this is the first time that a specific policy for mental health research and not just dementia has been included in the Life Sciences Vision,” states Sir Simon Wessely, regius professor of psychiatry at King’s College London. 

The strategy notes that ill mental health has driven an increasingly large burden of disease, with it now representing the single largest driver of disability in the UK. Therefore, a consortium of industry and academic investigators will now think about how these disorders can be redefined and therapies developed.

Mental health has been a key topic within the nutrition sector, with Innova Market Insights reporting that 44 percent of global consumers have taken action to improve their mental and emotional well-being over the last year. 

Ingredients like adaptogens are proving popular, while ADM is spotlighting how the microbiome can impact brain health. Last week, Sirio Group also announced it would develop new delivery formats in response to a “sharp increase” in demand for supplements offering mood and stress relief.

Enabling healthy aging
Nutrition also features in the government’s goal to understand the underlying biology of aging. The strategy notes that nutritional factors, as well as aspects like DNA repair, stem cell regeneration and chronic inflammation, are all involved in common aging processes in multiple organs.

“There is now a significant opportunity to invigorate this field in collaboration with industry, to discover both pathways and potential targets for therapeutic intervention. These approaches could help better manage the multimorbidity arising from chronic diseases that emerge in an increasingly aging population,” details the strategy. The life sciences sector employs more than 250,000 people and generates an £80 billion (US$111 billion) turnover each year in the UK.

The UK also aims to accelerate the pace of studies into novel dementia treatment, focusing on filling in the dementia knowledge gap, identifying new therapeutic opportunities, target validation, and new diagnostic, prognostic and treatment biomarkers.

Tackling obesity and cardiovascular health
The strategy also lays out a plan to examine how service, drug, digital and device combinations can address the major causes of cardiovascular disease, in particular obesity. 

It notes that multiple technologies could be “mixed and matched” adaptively in the trial to examine the efficacy of different combinations. The UK’s diversity and clinical research and data infrastructure would allow the trial to be delivered at scale (over 20,000 participants) in a representative population.

If any of the technology combinations then proved effective, it would then be possible to use a deal to incrementally trial these solutions in larger populations. If the efficacy of these technologies is maintained, a national rollout may follow.

However, Nicola Perrin, director of policy and public affairs at the Association of Medical Research Charities, warns that the government should be wary of the challenges surrounding data in the strategy.

“The public’s trust in the use and sharing of health data has recently been undermined, and there is work to do to raise public awareness and improve engagement in order to build confidence that health data will be used responsibly,” she states.

Considerations around data have become increasingly crucial as technology develops. Last month, a report from the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee called for tighter restrictions around direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomic tests. 

The UK’s regulatory scene has been undergoing numerous changes in light of its departure from the EU. A recent proposal document from the government laid out how it could “lead the way in setting clear, comparable standards” for nutraceuticals. 

By Katherine Durrell