London benefits from excellence and expertise within academia, industry and the National Health Service (NHS) and is a dynamic hub for spinouts, scaling companies and investment.
Venture capital investment into healthtech companies in London has grown 11.1 times since 2016, faster than in the Bay Area, New York and Boston.
Home to world-leading universities, hospitals and an expansive patient pool, the region is a growing engine room for translational and experimental medicine. London has several National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centres sitting between academia and the NHS and three of England’s Academic Health Sciences Centres.
Here are five reasons why life sciences in London excels:
1. Life sciences in London and the UK
"There is nowhere else in Europe that has the same concentration of leading universities and specialist research institutions, specialist hospitals, talent and access to finance as London. These factors make London a globally attractive destination for life science." Dr Angela Kukula, CEO of MedCity and Director of Life Sciences for London & Partners.
London sits at the heart of the Cambridge, London and Oxford Golden Triangle within the greater south-east of England. This area serves as the largest hub for biotech activity in the country, providing an outstanding entry point to the UK market, and supported by MedCity, which provides a front door to the region’s life sciences capability.
The UK is currently at the forefront of the biotech industry in Europe, with a significant investment of £1.8bn in 2023 [1].
There are more than 1,000 sites for life sciences companies in London, with industry spanning from advanced therapies to digital technologies and AI.
11% of the UK's life sciences industry employment was based in London in 2021/22, increasing from 19,400 (equivalent to 9% of the total industry employment) in 2008/09 to 34,800 in 2021/22. This increase meant London became the UK region with the third highest employment in 2021/22 (behind the south-east and east of England). Life sciences industry employment in London had the largest UK increase between 2018/19 and 2021/22, with an increase of 7,800 or 29%.
In addition, north-west England and London accounted for 12% and 11% of the UK life sciences industry total in 2021/22, generating £13.4bn and £11.6bn turnover, respectively [2].
2. A vibrant ecosystem
London’s life sciences ecosystem is a vibrant hub of academic, clinical and industry collaboration; nurturing groundbreaking tech companies and attracting a presence of pharmaceutical giants from across the world.
More than 180 accelerators and incubators can bring tech solutions to life in London, including Grow London Global, Entrepreneur First, MedTech SuperConnector and DigitalHealth.London.
Since 2020, three out of six UK-founded unicorn life sciences companies were founded in London since 2020, with the UK producing more unicorn companies than any other European country in the same period [3].
London-based research and development (R&D) is on the rise, with an 8.4% YoY growth in the number of sites, and 14.1% YoY increase in employment on average for the past five years [4].
Pharmaceutical industries in London are buoyant as 65% of global top 20 pharma companies (according to 2023 revenue) have offices in London, and all 20 have offices within one hour of London [5].
Flagship Pioneering, the company behind Moderna, has selected London for its first location outside the US, to become Flagship’s latest destination for startups and ventures; a statement of its confidence in the UK life sciences sector and investment environment [6].
3. A gateway to academic excellence and talent
London is a beacon of academic excellence, boasting world-renowned institutions and top-ranked universities. The city’s allure for talent is accentuated by its international research community, diverse workforce and thriving cosmopolitan lifestyle.
London is a base for world-renowned academic excellence, providing sought-after depth and breadth of knowledge. The city is home to five medical schools, three dental schools and institutions including the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and The Institute of Cancer Research.
Two of 12 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded Centres for Doctoral Training in AI and Healthcare are in London [7].
UCL, Imperial, King’s College London, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and QMUL are in the top 100 universities for life sciences and medicine globally [8].
82% of professionals employed in scientific and technical activities are educated to degree level or above, vs. 66% elsewhere in the UK [9].
London is an international research community, with 31.7% of this workforce being non-British or dual nationals, and 51% of all non-British or dual nationals employed in scientific and technical activities are employed in London [10].
9.4% of the London population are students in full time education, compared with 7.7% in the rest of the UK.
4. A powerhouse for research and development
Advances in R&D in London are supported by a network of clinical institutions, innovation districts and regulatory bodies, enabling a network for collaboration and knowledge sharing to bring better drugs to patients efficiently.
The city is home to a diverse community of 8.3 million patients, a third of whom were born outside of the UK, and the NHS has access to diverse cradle-to-grave population data of more than 65 million people, with longitudinal datasets developed over decades.
London has a developing landscape for innovation support and infrastructure, including the life sciences innovation districts at the King’s Cross Knowledge Quarter, Imperial's White City campus, the London Cancer Hub, Whitechapel and others. The city also enables proximity to regulators and policy makers at the MHRA, the CQC and the NHS.
London has maintained the highest rate of growth in R&D sites and R&D employment in the UK for the past five years, at 8.4% and 14.1% YoY growth respectively.
5. Digital healthcare
London’s rapidly growing digital health community is supported by dedicated programmes and collaborative networks at leading institutions, driving transformative research to address real-world challenges and advance adoption in the digital health sector.
Medtech investment in the UK has increased by almost 800% from £345m in 2016 to £3.13bn in 2021. Also, seven of the UK’s unicorn companies operate in the healthtech sector.
There are 236 medtech companies in London, and there have been 23 medtech spinouts from Imperial and 14 from University College London. London is also where accelerator attendance is concentrated in the UK, with 106 companies [11].
DHLA (Digital health London accelerator) is a year-long programme, designed to support digital health companies with products or services that could solve challenges facing the NHS.
The UCL Institute of Digital Health brings together world-class researchers from the university to deliver transformational interdisciplinary research across the health sciences, human sciences and data sciences.
King’s College London Digital Health Network fosters collaboration across departments, schools and faculties, allowing for a greater range of unique research on the social, ethical and political aspects of digital health that addresses real-world problems.
Queen Mary University London’s Digital Environment Research Institute focuses on AI for drug discovery, is a member of The Turing University Networks, and with close links to the Turing Institute hosts the Innovative Digital Health Collaboration Workshop.
The Turing Institute is partnered with leading universities, research institutes, and pharmaceutical companies such as Roche, Alzheimer’s Research UK and the NIHR, to advance the "Transformation of health", Turing’s next grand challenge.
The Imperial Healthcare Trust has launched a new digital collaboration space to boost health data-enabled research. This provides state-of-the-art management and analysis of health data collected across Imperial’s five hospitals and the wider North West London ICS on a complimentary data set from a population of 2.4 million people. The facility fosters collaboration between clinicians, academics, data scientists, industry partners and the local community.
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About MedCity
MedCity is part of the London & Partners family. It facilitates and supports the identification and utilisation of opportunities within London's life sciences and healthcare landscape, and uses networking and research and development to generate innovation.
MedCity fosters collaborations between biotech, medtech and pharma companies and the capital’s life sciences ecosystem to supercharge innovation, drive inward investment and build skills and talent across the sector in the UK.
Working in close partnership with London’s world-leading universities and national ecosystem stakeholders, MedCity creates powerful networks and partnerships to fast-track R&D, with a specialist focus on diagnostics and cell and gene therapy.
As life science experts, MedCity also facilitates the development of life science space in London to support the growth of research intensive businesses.
Case study
Recursion
How did London & Partners help you to set up and grow your business in London?
Our Head of Cluster Development, Ivana Poparic attended the opening of Recursion’s London office. The capital will provide Recursion with access to this world-class talent.
What does Recursion do?
Founded in 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Recursion is a clinical-stage company leading the intersection of Tech
and Bio (TechBio) by decoding biology to industrialise drug discovery. Since the beginning, Recursion’s vision has been to leverage technology in order to discover and develop better medicines faster.
How did London’s ecosystem contribute to the growth and success of Recursion’s operations?
Recursion’s rapid growth as a leader in the TechBio industry has turned the company’s attention towards talent, which largely influenced the company’s recent decision to establish a European base in London. London stood out as an ideal location given its brilliant and interdisciplinary talent across the fields of technology, biology and chemistry.
Can you tell us some of Recursion's recent successes?
Recursion has secured some of the largest discovery collaborations in the industry with leading biopharma companies to pursue complex areas of biology, such as neuroscience with Roche/Genentech and precision oncology with Bayer. It has also secured technology partnerships with companies like NVIDIA and Tempus, focused on accelerating the development of more powerful AI models.
What are Recursion’s plans for growth in London in the future?
Recursion hopes to continue pioneering advances in medicine at the intersection of technology and biology, building on London’s reputation as a hub for cutting-edge research and innovation. The company is also eager to harness the power of London’s TechBio ecosystem to collaborate with leaders in the space, across both technology and biopharma industries as well as academic institutions.
Success stories
How we can help
London & Partners and MedCity can help you to:
- Navigate London’s ecosystem.
- Connect with academia, industry and the NHS.
- Access potential partners and investment opportunities.