The key target metrics of the plan are identified as measuring investment in commercial research and development, access to scale-up capital, patient access and levels of foreign-direct investment.
According to the government, the measurable success of the industry is if it can attract more investors, and not what it really should be: better treatments for sick people, safer crop protection products and advancements in medical devices.
Since this plan was published, science and technology companies such as Merck, Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca have halted multi-billion-pound investments.
This is true of other companies.
Evotec closed their Abingdon site with all jobs lost, Nxera are cutting headcount by 15% and reducing UK research and development investment by £17 million.
If the supposed ‘golden triangle’, comprising Oxford, Cambridge and London are struggling for investment, what hope do the rest of us have?
The government are failing by their own, flawed, target metrics.
Allowing the success of such a vital sector to depend on foreign investment leaves people’s livelihoods exposed to market forces, and the current approach is failing to crowd-in private capital.
These investment cuts are hurting UK-based clinical research organisations such as Sygnature Discovery, Apex Molecular, BioAscent and Charles River.
All propose job losses, or have cut jobs in the last year, most in the last six months.
The non-profit research sector is also being hit, with job losses in Dundee and redundancies at the Scotland Institute in Glasgow.
Academia isn’t faring any better.
Labour’s Life Sciences Plan specifically mentions funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) who just announced a pause in research grants.
Any small morsels of funding promised to universities via UKRI will do nothing to fill the yawning black hole in university finances left behind by a collapse in international student numbers.
We produce thousands of graduates and post-graduates with science degrees in Scotland every year, on top of those being made redundant, and they have nowhere to go. Many will leave the sector, if not the country.
How will introducing 10,000 American scientists into the job market help?
Big pharma companies are losing market share to rapidly expanding competitors in China and India.
The irony is that these companies are rapidly expanding because they have been the beneficiaries of years of outsourcing by UK-based companies.
Nearly half of all new drug molecules entering clinical trials in the first half of 2025 were from Chinese companies, and around half of all licensing deals by value were for Chinese patents.
Labour’s life sciences sector plan claims it’s worth £100 billion to the economy and has a world class reputation. Maybe. But not for much longer…
Dr Paul Shaw, Glasgow.
More letters…
Do for this generation what was done for Scotland’s emigrants
Doctors have become a human shield for politicians of every stripe
Johnson’s crass remarks on the terror attack have dragged politics into the sewer
Taxi wasn’t car-tastrophe
I ATTENDED a wonderful sporting event in an expensive Aberdeen hotel.
When leaving, I asked the hotel receptionist to call me a taxi to take me home. She directed me to a taxi desk within the hotel. I ordered the taxi directly, and was pleasantly surprised at the speed and efficiency, with the car arriving in a few minutes.
Taxi drivers get some bad press. I want to say they get it right most of the time.
Dennis Forbes Grattan, Bucksburn, Aberdeen.
Classic Camley cartoon
The article on the Book of Kells reminded me of Camley’s excellent cartoon (“Bid to unravel mystery of Scotland’s Book of Kells birthplace”, The Herald, March 25).
Three monks are copying the book in Iona, when another monk shouts: “Stop, stop, we have Word!” Like a previous correspondent, I, too, think Camley should be knighted for his brilliant work.
John Martin, Bannockburn.
Box brouhaha
Your photo depicting the heyday of mobile tuck shops in hospitals reminded me of an incident a few years ago (“Remember When… Volunteers kept patients supplied with treats”, The Herald, March 27).
I was part of a church visitor group to a local nursing home and it was almost Christmas, so we decided to present each resident with a box of York Fruits.
Visiting a local supermarket, we unfortunately discovered that we couldn’t obtain the required number of brand-name boxes, so made up the numbers with the supermarket’s own brand.
Not a problem, we thought, as they were almost identical in appearance.
Fast forward to the evening of distribution…
A resident was extremely miffed, almost incandescent, that she had been given the supermarket alternative, while her friend next to her had the brand-name version!
John G McMenemy, Milngavie.
Tax not so taxing
Peter Dryburgh’s wondering if he were unusually stupid when updating his tax status online (Herald Letters, March 28) presented me with a challenge.
I decided to inform HMRC that I’d changed my address.
After logging on to HMRC’ s Government Gateway, six clicks later, via ‘Profile and Settings’, it was job done, and the website, using Mr Dryburgh’s words, effectively penetrated.
My aged brain did remind me to cancel the change, thereby avoiding unmitigated chaos.
David Miller, Milngavie.
Build back… better?
I write regarding the possibility of providing a suitable name for the recently devastated corner next to Glasgow’s Central Station, which some people would prefer not to call Union Corner (Herald Letters, March 16).
Given the lack of a plausible reconstruction plan – and the city’s track record in re-developing other derelict sites – may I suggest making a passing reference to the street on the other side of Central Station. Therefore in future it would be called No-Hope Corner, which would be suitably descriptive.
As for dressing-up the corner in time for the Commonwealth Games, we should take the lead from Susan Aitken and John Swinney, who appeared at the site while the embers were still glowing.
This would mean decking it out in a hi-viz vest and a hard hat.
While we’re at it, we could install on the newly created space a dozen or so Antony Gormley style sculptures of PR apparatchiks in Matalan suits.
Andrew Robertson, Giffnock.