Current landscape and future opportunities for cell and gene therapy in the UK: Perspectives from One Nucleus’ panel event

On Wednesday 11 June 2025, Bristows had the privilege of hosting a BioWednesday event in conjunction with One Nucleus and the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, in which industry leaders shared their thoughts on the current landscape of cell and gene therapy (CGT) development in the UK and what the UK needs to do in order to maintain its position as a leading player in this space. Moderated by Claire Smith, Partner at Bristows, the speakers and panellists included:

• Lee Dunham, Director of Business Development, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult
• Djordje Djordjevic, CEO & Co-founder, Plurify
• Chris Baker, Investment Principal, LifeArc Ventures
• Hiroyuki Usuda, Scouting & Transaction lead, Business Development, Astellas Pharma Europe 

In the opening talk of the evening, Lee Dunham (Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult) provided an overview of the CGT landscape in the UK. He noted the growth of the UK CGT sector with some key metrics. According to a recent UK BioIndustry Association report, and both Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’s UK 2024 Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product Clinical Trials Database and Annual Review 2024, these show: (i) a 70% increase in Phase I CGT trials in the UK in 2024 compared to 2023; (ii) UK CGT companies raising more than half (55%) of the VC funding across Europe in 2023; (iii) a 14% increase in the number of MHRA-licensed GMP manufacturing facilities in the UK in 2024 compared to 2023; and (iv) data evincing that the UK was the most popular location for CGT clinical trials in Europe in 2023. 

With these encouraging statistics in mind, the panellists then opined on their respective experiences within the CGT landscape to evaluate why they believe the UK remains such an attractive prospect in this field, the current investment climate, new and persistent challenges that risk the UK’s leading position and what the UK needs to do in order to continue being a leading player in the CGT space in the coming years. 

The UK’s strengths in the CGT space

The panellists all agreed that the UK offers world-class expertise in a number of sectors which contribute to its status as a leading hub for CGT development. Chris Baker (LifeArc Ventures) highlighted the UK’s academic excellence, evidenced by, amongst other things, its disproportionately large history of successful small molecule and antibody drug development, and numerous commercially successful university spin-outs. The other panellists echoed this sentiment, noting that volume of cutting-edge science and CGT technology coming out of UK academic institutions, with Lee Dunham (Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult) highlighting the notable commercial success of UCL spin-outs such as Autolus.

Hiroyuki Usuda (Astellas Pharma Europe) emphasised the importance of the UK’s efficiency at the pre-clinical and clinical stages of drug development, and also underscored the importance of the NHS, not only in its role in the clinical trial stage, but in offering a single point of entry to a huge patient population. In support of this, we note that the England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2025 highlights that there are currently 30 hospitals in England delivering CGTs, with over 1,700 patients completing CGT treatment to date. Notably, there are 13 CGTs in use in the NHS across 15 different indications for rare diseases and in oncology, with a further 20 CGTs expected to launch in 24 indications by the end of 2026. 

Djordje Djordjevic (Plurify) explained that the most valuable support for his company has been the VC mentality in the UK, particularly in the early stages of development, providing critical investment for companies with promising data. It was also emphasised that VC investors place a significant amount of weight on the capability of the core team of the investee company, particularly with regard to demonstrating experience in navigating the various, and in some cases unique, commercial and developmental pitfalls in the CGT field.

The current CGT investment climate in the UK 

The investment landscape, not just in CGT but across the entire biotech industry, is in a state of flux. Chris Baker (LifeArc Ventures) explained that this is in part due to the dramatic downturn in the number of biotech IPOs in the post-Covid era (from which we are now seeing some recovery) and the performance of biotech companies on the public markets, the effects of which are forcing some companies to take lower valuations than was the case only a few years ago. 

In the UK market, CGTs are still in favour amongst both domestic and overseas VC investors, but the there is strong competition from other drug modalities - such as antibodies and, in particular, next generation antibody therapies such as bi-specifics and antibody drug conjugates. There can also be significant disparity in investment success between prospective CGT investee companies. For example, we note that some later stage CGT companies have encountered difficulty in obtaining funding due to investors’ apprehension around whether such companies can overcome issues such as the market access and pricing reimbursement hurdles typically faced by CGT companies at this stage of their lifecycle. However, the interest in earlier stage CGT companies remains strong as there appears to be sustained optimism that the industry will have overcome the key challenges by the time these earlier stage CGT companies get to that stage of their lifecycle. 

Lee Dunham’s (Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult) opening talk drew some parallels between CGTs and antibodies. He reflected on the slow start and notable setbacks that companies developing monoclonal antibody therapies faced in the infancy of this field, and how these were overcome through perseverance and an industry-wide focus on overcoming such setbacks, leading to the antibody-based therapeutics market becoming the enormously successful and commercially lucrative business that it is today. The question therefore remains whether an equivalent unified determination to navigate the CGT industry through its own challenges might lead to a similar commercially successful outcome for CGTs in the future. 

The panellists also discussed the fact that government investment in the CGT space can be especially beneficial, as strong, consistent public funding could help the CGT industry navigate private investment uncertainties. Whilst the level of private investment in the CGT space is still below the soaring levels seen in 2021 and 2022 (inflated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the general associated commercial interest in the life sciences sector), private investment in the UK CGT industry has increased. Based on data from the aforementioned Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Annual Review 2024, such investment activity has increased from £0.77b in 2023 to £0.97b in 2024.

How the UK can stay ahead

There was an engaging discussion about what the UK can do to maintain its position as a global hub for CGT development, with the panellists agreeing that the biggest barriers to large scale commercial success of CGT products relate to, amongst other things, manufacturing, reimbursement and talent generation and retention. 

In line with the panel discussion at the One Nucleus BioWednesday event last year on CGT deal-making (which was also hosted by Bristows – see our report on the key insights gleaned from that session in our article here), the panellists outlined the manufacturing challenges that CGT companies continue to face. It was emphasised that a sustained drive with regard to the expansion of the CGT manufacturing infrastructure in the UK will help facilitate CGT companies to navigate the costly, complex and time-critical nature of CGT development and manufacturing.

Owing to, amongst other things, high development and manufacturing costs and often the limited amount of available data on the long-term risks and benefits of the treatments, CGT companies continue to face an uphill battle to receive positive pricing and reimbursement outcomes. The panellists agreed that flexibility in the regulatory framework and the adoption of innovative payment models in the UK could be imperative in ensuring that, ultimately, UK patients can receive the benefits of these new therapies. Otherwise the UK risks becoming an incubator for CGT companies that pioneer treatments that are only made available in other jurisdictions, such as the United States. 

In highlighting this issue, the panellists suggested that one way of alleviating the high costs (and therefore the pricing and reimbursement challenges) may lie in automation and standardisation – i.e. the adoption of technologies (such as AI), processes and materials across the CGT industry that can enable companies to manufacture at scale and achieve greater operational efficiencies, with less reliance on highly bespoke processes. Though true standardisation is still some way off, it was noted that stakeholders in the industry are starting to coalesce on this point, and that the UK is set to play a key role in these efforts. 

In order to ensure continued growth of the CGT industry, it was unanimously agreed that the UK should continue to prioritise and build upon its existing strengths in the UK’s academic infrastructure. On this, the panellists suggested that academic collaboration with industry is also a fundamental pillar in the UK’s current CGT landscape, and that the UK’s apprenticeship schemes could also be key – not only to help inspire people early on in their careers to develop their technical expertise relating to CGTs, but also more generally to provide vital support to individuals to equip them with the particular commercial and leadership skills that are needed for this sector. The panel also remarked that UK companies are attracting highly experienced individuals from the United States to form part of their senior leadership teams.

The UK has made, and continues to make, significant strides in establishing itself as a leader in CGT development, with world-class research institutions, innovative academic spin-outs and high levels of investment and clinical activity. The United States is, and is always likely to be, the dominant player in this sector but the field is becoming increasingly competitive globally, with notable advances being made elsewhere (e.g. in China in relation to gene therapy). To ensure that it continues to be at the forefront of CGT development in the years to come, the UK must continue to scale-up its manufacturing capacity, prioritise initiatives that help attract and train talent, and ensure that the regulatory and clinical frameworks can keep pace with the innovation in this space.