Translating science into leading companies that make a difference.
World-class scientific research
The UK is a source of world-class science and technology. It has a globally significant research base with one of the world’s richest concentrations of life science research universities.
Out of the top 10 medical universities worldwide, four are based in the UK1, and more specifically based within the ‘golden triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge. This is one of the world’s leading clusters for life sciences and Syncona operates at the heart of it.
A strong track record of innovation
The UK has always been at the forefront of technological innovation – consistently pushing boundaries and driving change. Paired with its medical heritage, it is no surprise that the proportion of UK inventions related to pharmaceuticals over the last decade is relatively high at 11.8%2 (see below).
The UK ecosystem has supported the discovery of many important medicines and has a strong legacy of inventing industry leading therapies. For example, one of the most successful biologic drugs ever developed, Humira, was invented at the University of Cambridge, whilst the leading lung cancer treatment of today, Tagrisso, was initially discovered at Alderley Park in Cheshire.
Innovative and impactful discoveries have never been an issue in the UK. The issue has been scaling this cutting-edge medical research into globally leading companies.
Translating innovation into impact
Syncona was founded in 2012 to bridge this gap between scientific research and commercial opportunity, through the provision of long-term capital and deep sector expertise.
We have been focused on developing transformational treatments for patients alongside world-class academic founders and management teams.
Building companies capable of seizing the commercial opportunity of translating science to products is critically important. We have demonstrated a differentiated capability in this discipline and are proud of the impact we have had on the sector.
We have consistently elevated and accelerated British science to the world stage, whether that be through the largest exit of a UK university spinout in a decade with Gyroscope or through the FDA approval of Autolus’ AUCATZYL® (obe-cel) in November last year.
A vital ecosystem with significant potential
Syncona has played a key part in changing the landscape and outlook for ambitious companies in the UK’s ecosystem – which contributes significantly to the economy. Businesses in the UK life sciences industry generate over £100 billion in turnover a year and support over 300,000 jobs domestically3. Nevertheless, it’s far from reaching its potential.
To help unlock this potential, we actively engage with UK government, industry participants, life science property developers, charities and regulators. This collaboration has never been more important than in an increasingly uncertain and volatile world.
To ensure the long-term prosperity of UK life sciences, we continue to work with policymakers to ensure government commitments are successfully translated to tangible impacts for our sector. An example of this is Mansion House reform. UK biotech raised £3.7 billion in 2024 (up 106% from 2023)4, which is very encouraging. However, we still need a more supportive domestic environment, with increased investment from UK pension funds and new pools of scale-up capital that can fund biotech companies through the entire development cycle.
In a world where many British biotech companies have had to evolve and adapt in recent years, what hasn’t wavered is medical innovation. What remains as important as ever is unlocking the UK’s potential.
1 https://www.topuniversities.com/university-subject-rankings/life-sciences-medicine.
2 https://biotechfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/BIA-Finance-report-27.02.23.pdf. % calculated as totals for inventions published in each area 2010-2021.
3 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/bioscience-and-health-technology-sector-statistics-2021-to-2022/bioscience-and-health-technology-sector-statistics-2021-to-2022.
4 https://biotechfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/BIA-Finance-report-25.02.25.pdf.
