London Mayor Boris Johnson launches MedCity to boost UK life sciences research

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson today launched a major new initiative backed by some of the UK’s senior academics and business people that will transform the London-Oxford-Cambridge life sciences sector into a world-beating power-cluster.

MedCity, a new body modelled on the immensely successful Tech City Investment Organisation, aims to help the life sciences sector in the South East to match the crucial position of financial services in the national economy. The new organization is tasked with attracting life sciences corporations large and small to the ‘golden triangle’ formed by the three UK cities, facilitating collaboration between them and the UK academic research base, and reinforcing specialist infrastructure so that the region becomes one of the premier, interconnected clusters for life science research, development, manufacturing and commercialization. This will create jobs, attract billions of pounds of investment and help spur the discovery of new treatments to tackle disease, propelling the sector to become a key contributor to the capital’s growth and health.

The Mayor, pictured at the launch, announced today that £2.9 million ($4.8 million) is being invested in the project by England’s university funding body – the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). This is on top of £1.2 million funding confirmed by the Mayor of London’s office. Boris Johnson said: “Together with Oxford and Cambridge we form a 'golden triangle' of scientific innovation and we need to channel that intellectual pre-eminence into a positive impact on our economy. MedCity will span everything from research to clinical trials to manufacturing, across biotech, med tech and health tech. I am in no doubt that having the whole 'chain' from small spin-offs to massive companies doing their research, clinical development and manufacturing here in London and the south east can be as important to our economy as the financial services sector is today.”

Eliot Forster, chairman of MedCity and chief executive of Creabilis, said: “MedCity is a unique enterprise that brings together our outstanding life sciences sector in London and the Greater South East. It will stimulate collaboration across the sector and through this drive economic growth. This is a singular opportunity for this sector to find its rightful place in the world market; to create new companies, new therapies, new investments and to deliver economic and patient benefits.”