The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today (8 April) launched MedCity, a partnership between UCLPartners, King's Health Partners, Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre and the Greater London Council, with co-operation from Cambridge and Oxford Universities.
MedCity will build partnerships to attract life science corporations to the 'golden triangle' of London, Cambridge and Oxford, as well as hospitals, scientific institutions and businesses, so that the South East becomes one of the leading, interconnected clusters for life science research, development, manufacturing and commercialisation.
As well as creating jobs and attracting billions of pounds of investment, it will help spur the discovery of new treatments to tackle disease.
The Mayor announced funding of £2.92m for the project from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and a further £1.2m from the Mayor of London's office.
This initiative has the real potential to maximise the UK's strengths as a world leader in bioscience
Johnson said he believed that the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medtech industries would eventually rival the financial services in their role in the UK's economy.
The BioIndustry Association (BIA) welcomed the launch of MedCity as it sets out to champion the life sciences sector in the region.
Steve Bates, BIA Chief Executive, said: 'This initiative has the real potential to maximise the UK's strengths as a world leader in bioscience and critically, to combine these with the benefits of being home to a major global financial centre.
'We are entirely behind MedCity's goal to drive greater global investment into the sector by, for example, taking action to increase the volume of investor-focused communications on the bioscience industry. More analyst coverage will help to increase understanding of the potential of the sector and ultimately drive investment. Given the current renewed interest in the bioscience sector there is a timely opportunity to do so.
'We anticipate that companies throughout the UK will reap the benefits of a spotlight being shone on the sector, and are pleased to see early indications of collaborations with other UK science hubs.'
