UK Life Sciences Sector Plan: An ambitious vision for innovation, growth and NHS transformation

On 16 July 2025, the UK Government launched its Life Sciences Sector Plan as part of its Industrial Strategy (a 10-year plan aimed at increasing business investment in 8 high-growth sectors). The Life Sciences Sector Plan sets out a vision to position the UK as a leading life sciences economy by 2030, and the third globally by 2035, behind the US and China.

The Life Sciences Sector Plan highlights that whilst the UK continues to be a global leader in life sciences - with the sector worth roughly £100 billion to the economy and employing around 300,000 people – the sector continues to face persistent challenges including: (i) struggles with commercialisation and adoption; (ii) slower times for setting up and approving commercial clinical trials as compared to competing countries; and (iii) the difficulty that emerging UK life sciences companies face in accessing capital needed for later-stage growth. The measures set out in the new plan aim to address these challenges and more, and to ensure that the UK life sciences sector remains a competitive and attractive destination for innovation and investment.

A tripartite strategy

The plan is underpinned by over £2 billion in UK government funding, with additional support from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). It focuses on three strategic pillars:

1. Enabling world class R&D – strengthening the UK’s global position in science and discovery.
2. Making the UK an outstanding place in which to start, grow, scale and invest – ensuring homegrown companies are built and scaled effectively, supporting the manufacturing sector and attracting foreign direct investment.
3. Driving Health Innovation and NHS Reform – delivering more favourable outcomes for patients and ensuring the regulatory and market access systems get innovation to the NHS more quickly. 

Headline actions 

The Life Sciences Sector Plan introduces six headline actions:

• Health Data Research Service (HDRS): The UK Government, alongside the Wellcome Trust, will invest up to £600 million to create a new HDRS in order to establish a secure and AI-ready platform for research-ready health data. This aims to simplify access to NHS and population-scale healthcare data through a single access point, supporting global trials and AI investment and innovation.
• Clinical trials reform: The UK Government intends to streamline clinical trial processes by cutting bureaucracy, reducing set-up times, expanding capacity and enhancing digital connectivity. Key reforms include standardised contracts, monthly clinical trial performance scorecards and improved support for SMEs through enhancing the UKRI and NIHR offer. 
• Backing UK manufacturing: Up to £520 million will be deployed via the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund to stimulate growth in the UK life sciences manufacturing sector. A new investment portfolio will also support investments over £250 million, encouraging UK companies developing novel therapies and treatment modalities to remain in the UK. 
• Regulatory and market access reform: The Life Sciences Sector Plan outlines efforts to reduce unwarranted barriers to market entry through quicker and more predictable routes to regulatory approval, through increased MHRA funding, medical device regulatory framework reform, streamlining National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) processes and a new AI framework to be published by the MHRA in 2026.
• Introducing low-friction procurement: The UK Government will implement a Rules Based Pathway to provide accelerated commercial support and enable faster and less complex access to NHS infrastructure, as well as launching an “Innovator Passport” aimed at enabling faster adoption of proven innovation and reducing duplication in local purchasing decisions.
• Partnering with industry to drive growth and innovation: The UK Government has confirmed its commitment to securing at least one major strategic industry partnership annually and it will also establish a dedicated support service to assist 10-20 high-potential UK companies to scale and stay headquartered in the UK.

A mixed reception

The general reaction to the Life Sciences Sector Plan so far has been positive, with some notes of caution voiced by various stakeholders.

David Seymour (Director of Data Partnerships, Health Data Research UK), said the “ambition in [the Life Sciences Sector Plan] is much needed, but is colliding with a system full of potholes that disrupt, delay and damage vital health data research”. He also noted that “while major investments in the genomics revolution and Health Data Research Service are welcome, there is a real danger of ‘planning blight,’ where the focus on designing the future system stops us from improving the performance of the current system. The most radical thing we can do is get the basics right”.

Meanwhile, the statement of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) said that the “solutions proposed are necessary and important, but they are not enough to turn around the UK’s decline” and that the UK needs to address “the long-term disinvestment in innovative medicines that is increasingly preventing NHS patients from accessing medications that are available in other countries”. In particular, the ABPI emphasised that the rising payment rates under the associated Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth and the statutory scheme are out of line with similar schemes elsewhere in Europe, which threatens to undermine the UK Government’s strategy and intention to make UK life sciences a crucial part of its wider Industrial Strategy.