Project to promote UK life sciences sectors

A new marketing strategy for promoting the UK's expertise in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and health care sectors, which brings together the government and business, has been launched by the Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Lord Digby Jones. This includes individual marketing campaigns for each of the three sectors and setting up a marketing strategy board.

Introducing the move, Lord Jones said that, as "a global center of life science creativity, the UK punches well above its weight in these sector. In investment terms, we lead in Europe and are second only to the USA. The pharmaceutical industry alone contributed over L12.0 billion ($24.62 billion) to UK exports in 2006. But, to stay ahead, we need to exploit the opportunities that new technologies are offering. Global competition in the life science sectors is intense and growing, and we need to ensure we are among th first to make in-roads into emerging markets like China and India."