The pandemic has demonstrated Britain’s strengths in life sciences to the world and, equally importantly, to Britain. The development, manufacture and delivery of the vaccine into so many arms did not happen by accident. It was thanks to sustained long-term investment under the previous Labour government, which set up the Office for Life Sciences and invested in successful institutes like the Centre for Process Innovation in the north-east, combined with attention and focus from the current government. Now I hope we will learn the lessons of that success and apply them more broadly to our biotech sector.
My background is in telecoms – I entered that sector as a graduate engineer in 1987 and I have seen it grow and become the basis for our global economy and our cultural, social and, often, educational lives. The pandemic has accelerated the migration online and we are all digital citizens now.
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