On STEM Day, we celebrate the essential role life science companies and professionals play in our society.
From pharma to biotech, medical devices to digitech, the life sciences market is a booming industry that relies on highly skilled specialists to keep moving forwards. The STEM professionals working across these sectors help millions of citizens stay safe and improve quality of life – whether it’s protecting people from deadly diseases or supporting different life stages and life-altering moments.
Bold visions
According to PwC, the UK life sciences sector has set itself a goal to be a “global life sciences superpower by 2030”. Deloitte’s 2022 Global Life Sciences Outlook highlights the power of this industry right now too. Many companies experienced growth because of Covid-19, but businesses have been able to sustain this beyond the pandemic, says Deloitte. Its analysis anticipates further growth, with a large proportion of the companies that invested in digital pre-pandemic “benefitting from their bold vision as digital transformation accelerates every part of the life sciences value chain”.
For Hemish Ilangaratne, Senior Business Manager at Real Staffing, the UK – particularly Cambridge, Oxford and London – are the top “science hubs” when it comes to life science innovation and expertise, with the work done in academia very well regarded. Alongside the government and private sector, universities play a pivotal role in life science progression and keeping the industry thriving.
Powering the economy
Its fundamental part of the UK economy is highlighted in the government’s Life Sciences Vision paper: “The human life sciences sector is among the most valuable and strategically important in the UK economy, and critical to the country’s health, wealth and resilience.” It says in recent decades advances in life sciences have “fundamentally improved the length and quality of life in the UK and globally”.
Alongside this, government strategy aims to increase clinical trials by over 50% in the next five years, notes Ilangaratne. Clinical trials create new drugs and a growing, powerful sector at the heart of our economy. But he stresses the importance of sufficient funding to keep life science businesses and professionals facilitated, so they can do their extraordinary work. “For our biotech and pharma sectors to really continue to grow, they need that backing and investment from UK investors,” says Ilangaratne.
During the Covid-19 outbreak, the UK’s flourishing life sciences industry and the STEM professionals operating within it were also of paramount importance – from its development of vaccines to the government’s Vaccine Taskforce work. The UK was even the first country in the world to roll out the Covid-19 vaccine.
The pandemic reminded us that diseases can appear at any time, and having such a booming life sciences industry helps the UK tackle new diseases and bacteria more quickly and efficiently.
Ilangaratne says the pandemic acted as a springboard to new avenues of innovation and growth, adding that some areas are growing and innovating at particular speed. These include digital health, AI machine learning and the gene fields (using mRNA developed during the vaccine roll out).
A world of good
Ilangaratne stresses the importance of celebrating all life science professionals. “Whether it's in oncology, rare disease, cardiovascular or respiratory,” their role in society is imperative, says Ilangaratne. “For example, we’ve got an ageing population,” and so the part these specialists play in helping the elderly is vital.
As the NHS notes, we all rely on life sciences in one way or another: from investigating the causes of illnesses and how they develop, to helping doctors find the best treatment for people, or improving our understanding of genetics and reproductive science. The industry’s profound impact can be felt in so many different corners of life. “Every single medical device company or pharmaceutical company is producing a specific drug or device that is specific to a disease or therapy area,” explains Ilangaratne. “Thermo Fisher Scientific, for instance, is producing the testing kits everyone uses to check whether they've got Covid-19, while AstraZeneca is producing the vaccine. Then there are companies specialising in dermatology, in eyesight, for example, with gene therapy products that prevent blindness in newborns.”
A key reason why life science professionals hold a “starring role” in today’s world is down to their dedication to innovations that work, adds Ilangaratne, who points out the rigour that goes into clinical trials for each innovation.
The rise of digital
For Ilangaratne, digital health is a far-reaching term and one that encompasses “any company that’s involved in producing a product or service that’s digital with the aim of treating and helping patients”.
When it comes to digital innovations, while life sciences lags a little behind industries like banking, according to Ilangaratne – now is its time to go through bigger digital transformation. Digital and AI are revolutionising traditional healthcare models and helping STEM professionals do an even better job at improving patient experience and outcomes. Tech innovations include everything from medical devices supporting a better quality of life for older people to digital health apps making everyday health needs more accessible to citizens. “Digital is allowing companies to collaborate with patients to develop therapies with endpoints that the patients care about, including quality of life measures,” notes Deloitte.
In terms of getting new drugs to market, the space is highly competitive. The rise of digital has enabled companies to get products to market more quickly and beat competition. Ilangarante says than on average it can take 12 years to get a drug therapy to market. “The use of digital, AI and machine learning is accelerating that process and is really important for companies, or else the time to market is going to slow down.”
Life science is a crucial field and the companies and people behind it represent an exciting and fundamental part of our society. On this year’s STEM Day we salute you.
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