Pharmaceutical company Lilly has unveiled plans to invest £279 million in the UK as part of a collaborative partnership with the government. The investment was announced at the government's International Investment Summit in London.
The collaboration will see the pharma giant launch Europe’s first ‘Lilly Gateway Labs’ innovation accelerator. The facility will support early-stage life science businesses to develop medicines by providing laboratory space, mentorship and potential financial backing to accelerate future growth in the life sciences sector. Lilly’s Gateway Labs intends to build on the 300,000 jobs that the UK’s life sciences sector already supports. Lilly is the world's biggest pharmaceuticals company by market cap.
The UK government said that the collaboration aims to set the stage for it to work with industry to trial approaches for treating obesity. Action to tackle the condition is urgently needed as it is costing the UK’s health service more than £11 billion each year.
David A Ricks, Chair and CEO of Eli Lilly & Company said: “We welcome this opportunity to partner with the UK government on tackling and preventing disease and accelerating innovation to advance care delivery models. Today’s announcement is an important milestone, and we are pleases to reinforce Lilly’s commitment to improving health for people living with obesity and its serious consequences.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: "For all the challenges facing the health of our nation, we have two huge advantages: some of the world’s leading scientific minds, and a National Health Service with enormous potential. If we can combine the two, patients in this country can reap the rewards of the revolution in medical science unfolding before our eyes."
Obesity is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer and a major contributor to ill-health that prevents people from participating fully in work. This government said the collaboration will bring together treatments and technologies developed by the life sciences sector and the health system seeking to demonstrate improved long-term health outcomes for those living with obesity. It aims to set the stage for government to work with industry to trial innovative approaches to treating obesity as part of a package of care.
The UK government’s Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle added: “This ground-breaking collaboration is proof that this sector is held in high esteem internationally and is driving investment in the UK.”
Life sciences is one of the eight key sectors which the government will focus on to drive economic growth as part of its new Industrial Strategy Green Paper which it has also now published.
Speaking at the Summit the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer commented on the need for stability to attract investment. “We have a golden mandate to end the culture of chop and change, that makes it so hard for investors to assess the value of any proposition. We are building a more strategic architecture for growth. A way for investors to have a much steadier hand on the tiller.”
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