For decades the U.K. has punched above its weight in life sciences. I would wager that as many as a quarter of medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the past decade can trace their origins back to the U.K., thanks to some of the best basic science in the world (more than 30 Nobel laureates and over 10% of life science publications worldwide, ranking third globally), a vibrant investment ecosystem, and close ties to international pharmaceutical companies with significant R&D bases in the U.K.
But recently, a trickle of bad news has become a torrent. AstraZeneca halted investment in a more than $600 million manufacturing facility in Northern England earlier in the year. On Friday, it announced that it will by pause $270 million investment in its flagship U.K. R&D site in Cambridge.
In a similar vein, Merck abandoned a $1.3 billion commitment to a London R&D facility that was already under construction. Add in announcements from Eli Lilly and Sanofi of paused investments in U.K. R&D of similar magnitude, and the scale of the storm becomes apparent.
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