BioTrinity 2024: Catalysing a brighter future for the life sciences industry. A Day One Wrap-up.
The first day of the 18th annual BioTrinity conference was a vibrant occasion that buzzed with energy and positivity. The event is organised by OBN, whose purpose is to catalyse success in life sciences through delivering on three promises – helping their members to: save time and money; get investment; and make connections.
The decision to hold the conference at a larger venue (Convene in Houndsditch) was born out of a surge in interest in the event (with close to 850 registered delegates).
Setting the upbeat tone for the conference was Stuart Rose, CEO of OBN. In his welcome presentation, Stuart expressed his optimism about the life sciences sector. He spoke of the UK’s achievements, pointing out that, despite having less than 1% of the world’s population, the country accounts for more than 15% of the world’s most highly cited innovative research publications. “As a nation our Innovation Index (the yield in innovative research per capita), means that we are really punching above our weight.” He concluded by saying that we have been through the worst economically and, supported by some recent McKinsey sentiment tracking, that there were better times ahead.
This feeling was echoed by Tim Haines, executive partner of Abingworth, in his keynote speech, “A Review of the Life Sciences Investment Landscape”. Tim pointed out that the sector will experience continued shift over the next few years, and that increasingly investors are looking for convincing data delivered at a later stage in development. The challenge for R&D SMEs, (and their leadership teams), therefore is that they need to be smarter in their milestone data delivery.
While posing the question of whether, as an industry we are doing enough clinical innovation, Tim echoed that the UK is a highly productive environment for innovation. “There are really exciting signs,” he added. “£2 billion went into the UK sector last year. We made up around 40% of European investment.”
Stuart and Tim were speaking at the start of the Business & Investment track. Over the course of the day, expert speakers in this track shared their insights and experiences on a range of topics including: an insider guide to grant funding, the benefits of London as a listing venue for companies; tax; the latest regulations; and the view from the helm of some of the UK’s leading life sciences R&D SMEs.
Running alongside these were two action-packed science tracks, where companies shared their R&D progress in 13 spotlight sessions across the life-sciences spectrum. In Science Track one, the latest breakthroughs in oncology, infectious diseases, rare diseases, immunology and inflammation were shared. Meanwhile, in Science Track two, HealthTech, MedTech and lung, kidney and GI were discussed. There was also a captivating session, on FemTech. Here leaders of four companies in this field explored and exploded the myths of gender-based health data, before going on to discuss their most recent successes and challenges in the world of female life sciences.
A dedicated Partnering room gave delegates the chance to make new contacts, with a series of 20 minute partnering sessions. With over 9,000 meeting requests the Partnering facility was massively over-subscribed.
Indeed, from start to finish across BioTrinity ‘24, there was a palpable sense of an exciting future being catalysed by innovative R&D, newly-forged connections and the positive trend of a recovering funding environment.
