Kathryn Chapman, BRCL, interviewed live on Sky News representing the Life Science Industry

28/11/2023

It was great to see Kathryn being interviewed live on the Business Programme of Sky News with Ian King, representing the Life Science sector following the Government's announcement of £520 million investment in to life science manufacturing. 

Ian posed some tough questions, including why should the public's pension portfolio be invested into start-ups, isn't it a bit risky?! No, replied Kathryn. It's the future of the UK economy - an innovative, growing sector and the pension fund managers are working with people who know what they are doing - their money is in safe hands. 

Kathryn went on to discuss with Ian the great outcome from the spin out review - which will unlock the potential from UK Universities, with the support of a £20million proof-of-concept fund. The detail of how this fund will be deployed is yet to come but it's a great injection for the ecosystem. 

The statement also revealed more flexibility in the tax relief scheme for R&D companies, which will make a big difference to growth, job creation and accelerating drug discovery to deliver to patients. 

And finally, unlocking pension funds through structural changes and allocating £50million to the fund via the British Business Bank. 

Overall, great news for the sector and we look forward to hearing more of the detail in the coming months. 

Sky based themselves at Cambridge start-up Nyobolt, at the Evolution Business Centre - they manufacture high-power fast charging batteries. 

The full clip is available here along with some behind the scenes photos!