Future Biotechnologists

Profile of the life science sector in the United Kingdom

The life science sector includes companies in the biotechnology (biotech), pharmaceutical, medical technology and medical diagnostics sectors. The term 'biopharmaceutical' refers to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The industry is also reliant on many other types of companies and services, some of which are described below.

What is a biotechnology company?

Biotechnology companies harness the process of organisms and living cells to create products to improve healthcare, agriculture, food and the environment. Such companies are most active in the healthcare sector where they are helping to generate more accurate and faster diagnostic platforms and to develop drugs that are more precise in their target and personalised treatments.

Drugs produced by biotech companies are commonly called biologics. Derived from living cells or through biological processes, such drugs are relatively complex molecules that are designed to replicate natural substances in our body. Some examples include hormones, vaccines, blood products, monoclonal antibodies, recombinant therapeutic proteins, gene and cellular therapies and growth factors. Where biologics have proven particularly beneficial is in the treatment of cancer, auto-immune diseases, genetic disorders and hard-to-treat diseases. But such medicines are expensive, because they need to be produced in living organisms which requires hundreds of process controls to assure predictable manufacturing. The structural complexity of biologics also makes their characterisation difficult and their clinical evaluation more challenging. Biologics also often need to be administered through infusions or injections which adds to the cost of such treatment.

In the context of food and agriculture, biotech companies are deploying the knowledge of science and genetics to make food cheaper to produce, longer lasting, more disease resistant as well as more nutritious. They are also pioneering alternative proteins produced from plants, cultivated from animal cells, or produced via fermentation to meet the demand for affordable meat and a more sustainable food future. Biotech companies are also at the forefront of the development of biofuels, which involves generating alternative forms of fuel generated from plants and waste.

What is a pharmaceutical company?

Pharmaceutical companies research and develop and sell drugs typically manufactured through chemical synthesis. Such drugs generally have a simple chemical structure which means that their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are relatively predictable and amenable to simple dosing protocols for patients. In many cases they can be taken orally. Small molecule drugs make up 90 percent of the top prescribed medication of the market. Some common examples of such drugs include painkillers, like aspirin and paracetamol, and antihistamines which are often used to alleviate allergies, insomnia, motion sickness and vertigo.

What is a medical technology company?

Medical technology companies develop, manufacture and sell devices, equipment and software designed to help with the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients. Found in hospitals, ambulances, doctors’ surgeries and even peoples’ homes, medical technology covers a very wide range of products. It includes general medical devices, like plasters and dressings for use on wounds, syringes, heart valves, ECG monitors, CT scanners and dialysis machines, as well as active implantable medical devices like cardiac pacemakers, cochlear implants and nerve stimulators. In vitro diagnostic devices used to examine specimens, such as pregnancy test kits, hepatitis B test kits and blood grouping reagents, also come under the medical technology umbrella.

Other forms of medical technology include surgical and laboratory equipment, sterile procedure packs, as well as robots to help perform highly complex surgical operations. Implants and prostheses all fall into the category of medical technology as do wearable medical devices worn on the body to collect, analyse and transmit health data. Digital tools and software can also be categorised as medical technology.

What are scientific supplies and service companies?

Laboratory and scientific equipment are essential to research and development within the biopharmaceutical and medical technology sector. Companies in this space include ones that are highly specialised and only produce one type of product or service, while others provide a multitude of services and products.

The wide variety of products offered by such companies falls into a number of categories. Firstly, there are those that provide general laboratory equipment, like sterile test tubes, flasks, petri dishes, pipettes, incubators, centrifuges, and microscopes as well as personal protective clothing like masks and gloves. Then there are the companies that supply a broad array of reagents, sold either individually or in ready-to-use kits. Such products include chemical substances, like solvents and acids, and biological products like antibodies, proteins, and cell lines. Other companies active in the space develop and supply instruments and reagents for carrying out DNA sequencing. Used in many different applications, the quality, strength and durability of each of these items are subject to strict control and evaluation.

Beyond companies supplying consumables, there are also those that provide services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies on a contract basis. Known as contract research organisations (CROs), these companies can help reduce the cost of having to do everything in-house. Such companies vary in size and type of services they offer. The number of contract companies has increased over the past few years, fueled in part by the growing number of small companies who lack the full capacity to develop and manufacture their products. Where CROs can help is in toxicity testing, evaluating compound on cellular and molecular processes of interest, formulation development, manufacturing and clinical testing of a drug or diagnostic, securing market approval as well as packaging and distribution.

What are medical diagnostic companies?

An important component of the healthcare system, medical diagnostics help to identify a patient’s medical condition or disease and can be used to monitor how well a treatment is working. While some diagnostic tests, such as those designed to detect pregnancy or to help in the management of diabetes, can be self-administered and the results read by the patient, others can only be performed in a clinical setting and need to be processed by a laboratory. There are many different types of medical diagnostics, which can be broadly divided between invasive and non-invasive tests.

Invasive diagnostic tests require cutting or entering a part of the body. Blood tests fall into this category as do biopsies, where tissue samples are taken from patients for analysis. Invasive diagnostics also include procedures that involve the insertion of medical instruments. One example is an endoscopy, where a long, thin tube with a small camera is put down the throat to visually examine the upper digestive tract. Another is a coronary angiogram, where a catheter is threaded through blood vessels to the heart from an artery in the groin, arm or neck to look at the structure and function of the heart.

Non-invasive diagnostics covers procedures that can be performed without breaking the skin or entering the body. One of the most common tests in this category is the X-ray, a technique that uses a form of electromagnetic radiation to see bones, tissues and structures inside the body. X-rays are often used to diagnose a broken bone or fluid in the lungs. Other non-invasive ways to see inside the body are computerised tomography, known as a CT scan, magnetic resonance imaging, or MRIs, and ultrasound scans.

Diagnostic tests can also be classified as in vivo and in vitro. The term in vivo comes from the Latin ‘within the living’ and refers to procedures performed in or on a living person. Some examples of in vivo diagnostics are the stethoscope and blood pressure devices. Coming from the Latin 'in glass' in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) are commonly performed in test tubes and similar equipment. Some of the most common and widely used in vitro diagnostics are clinical tests that analyse biological samples taken from the human body such as blood, saliva and urine. Such tests provide results based on either measurements of the concentration of specific substances or analytes like sodium and cholesterol, or by the detection of where a particular marker or set of markers are present or absent, such as genetic mutations or an immune response to an infection. All IVDs are subject to strict regulations.

What are genomics companies?

The UK is a world leading player in genomics research which is a multidisciplinary field that looks at the genome, the complete set of genes or genetic material in a cell or an organism. It explores how genes work and interact with each other as well as the environment. This is done using a combination of different laboratory technologies like DNA sequencing and bioinformatics, a technique that uses computational and statistical tools to help researchers understand and identify patterns in complex biological data.

Many advances have been made in genomics since the first human genome was sequenced in 2003. This has helped transform knowledge about the genetic basis of complex diseases, the ability to predict a person's risk for disease, determine an individual's response to drugs and the development of targeted more personalised therapies. In addition it is helping to monitor the spread and evolution of infectious diseases like the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the development of new diagnostic tools and therapeutics. Beyond healthcare, genomics is helping to mine the genetic diversity of crops and livestock to improve food production and resilience.

What are patents?

Patents are the cornerstone of the biopharmaceutical and medical technology industry. A form of intellectual property that describes an invention, patents give companies the legal right to exclude competitors for a limited period from making, using or selling the invention, allowing companies to recoup the cost of research and development of new products which can be significant. Such work is commonly undertaken by highly trained legal professionals.

What are regulatory affairs?

All biopharmaceutical and medical technology products need to gain regulatory approval before they can go on the market. This is a complex process and can take between 10 and 12 years for it to be completed, and even once a produce has gained approval it needs to be continually monitored to detect any rare adverse events and gain additional data about how it performs. Those working in regulatory affairs need to coordinate across many teams across all stages of development from the laboratory to the clinic. It includes making sure the product has undergone the appropriate testing requirements, test results have been properly analysed and relaying this information to the appropriate regulatory authority.

How AI is being used in life sciences

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a broad term that covers a range of technologies, especially computer systems, designed to perform complex tasks typically requiring human thinking and reasoning. The advantage of AI tools is they make it possible to quickly sift through, filter and analyse multiple sources of information. Within the life sciences context they are invaluable to finding and interpreting patterns in large, complex biological datasets often missed by human researchers. The ability of AI tools to reveal new biological insights and identify new disease biomarkers is encouraging their widespread their adoption in the drug discovery and development process. AI not only has the potential to accelerate drug discovery and the development of medical diagnostics, it also could make the process of clinical trials faster, safer and more diverse.

Employment in the sector

According to the Office of Life Sciences businesses in the biopharmaceutical and medical technology sectors in the UK employed 359,600 people in 20223/2024. Across the UK, 130,000 people were employed in life sciences manufacturing companies, and 41,200 were employed in companies where research and development was the primary activity.

Links

Association of British HealthTech Industries.

Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

The Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine.

The BioIndustry Association.

British Generic Manufacturers Association.

British In Vitro Diagnostics Association.

British Pharmacological Society.

British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy.

Digital Health & Care Alliance.

Ethical Medicines Industry Group.

The Medical Technology Group.

UK Office for Life Sciences.