On Tuesday evening (17th March) the first Cambridge biotech summit was hosted at the St. John’s Innovation Centre, bringing together industry leaders and key labour figures to discuss the future of one of Cambridge’s most successful sectors.

The summit, run in association with Next Generation, the Labour Party’s Entrepreneurs' Network, featured a panel discussion involving political figures and industry representatives. Daniel Zeichner, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge and Ian Wright, Labour MP for Hartlepool and Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, spoke about Cambridge with respect to labour’s industry policies. Dr Billy Boyle, co-founder of Owlstone Nanotech Ltd and Steve Bates, CEO of the Bioindustry Association, offered an insider’s view of the future of the biotech industry.  

The panel discussion, followed by lively audience participation, highlighted the future profitability of the biotech sector in Cambridge, and emphasised the city’s envious position as the industry leader in Europe. The discussion also raised concerns about the significant rises in the cost of living in the city in recent years. Many appeared concerned by the effect of increasing financial pressures on attracting PhD and Post-Doctoral researchers to the city.

Dr Boyle, an engineering graduate of the university, cofounded Alstone just over ten years ago in Cambridge. His research currently focuses on the development of a breathalyser enabling early detection of cancer. This project, named LuCID, has recently won £1M of NHS funding. Dr Boyle emphasised the need for the government to support small enterprises and be willing to invest in them.

He stressed that the UK’s system of governmental support for innovation and entrepreneurship trailed behind the USA, with his experiences showing that the best, but typically neglected ideas, often come from innovation centres and not from larger companies, such as Microsoft or IBM.

Steve Bates highlighted the “particular buzz” of the biotech sector in Cambridge at the moment. Over recent years, a huge number of technological start-ups have appeared in Cambridge, which Bates termed part of “the cluster of expertise”, often referred to as Silicon Fen which makes Cambridge a “global player” in multiple scientific industries, in particular biotechnology, software and electronics.

Indeed, the development of industry in Cambridge is, in part, a result of innovation projects led by the university and affiliated colleges. The Cambridge Science Park, the oldest science park in the UK and home to a high concentration of biotech companies, was established by Trinity College in 1970.

Labour MP Wright spoke about recognising the competitive advantage of the city. He also emphasised the importance of long-term investment in the biotech sector to ensure that the UK retains its position as the European leader. Addressing immigration, Wright signalled Labour’s open policy towards highly-skilled immigrants to work in the sector, stating that the party’s message remained “Britain is open for business”.

The role of academia in the development of the biotech industry was also discussed. Sir Tom Blundell, former Sir Willian Dunn Professor of Biochemistry, participated as a member of the audience. Blundell cofounded the University of Cambridge portfolio company Astex Pharmaceuticals in 1999, with partial funding from University seed funds. The company was sold to the Japanese company Otsuka for $886 million in 2013.

Although Blundell indicated that very few successful companies are related to academic intellectual property (IP), he underlined Cambridge’s competitive advantage, a result of its combination of serial entrepreneurs, good links with academics and high volume of local consultants. The audience concluded that both university academics and venture capital have a role to play in the development of the biotech sector in the city.

Concerns were also raised about the suitability of Cambridge’s infrastructure as the city grows and expands industrially. The question of increasing salaries was discussed with respect to the recent move of AstraZeneca to the city, which raised questions about the need to increase employee salaries to meet the increasing cost of living in the city.

According to research carried out in 2014 by Hometrack, a provider of property market intelligence, house prices in Cambridge have risen more than in any other city since 2007. It was agreed by both industry figures and labour representatives that affording housing was a key issue affecting the city. In particular, to retain its competitive advantage, Cambridge must be an affordable place to live for PhD and Post-Doctoral researchers.