Harnessing a capital efficient, fast and data-enabled life sciences future
Nowhere do the fundamentals remain stronger than in the East of England region and UK as a whole, writes Tony Jones, CEO of One Nucleus.
The UK saw a reported total of >£5 billion invested in 2025, with local heroes such as Artios (£86 million), T-Therapeutics (£68m) being notable raises in the last quarter alone.
M & A also played its part with deals for companies such as DefiniGEN and Sphere Fluidics, acquired during 2025, and R & D collaborative deals involving key regional leaders such as Alchemab Therapeutics with Lilly valued at £415m and Arecor plc with Sequel Med Tech for product co-development along with a royalty sales and technology access raise of £11m.
2026 has started strongly with exciting fundraising news from companies including seed stage Outsee bringing total funds raised to $6.7m, bit.bio raising a £50m series C round and Nuclera extending its series C to $87m.
There is an underlying caveat, however. Whilst investment is returning there is an acceptance that it will be a discerning dealmaking landscape through 2026. The impact of China, a degree of remaining risk aversion among investors and global macroeconomics keeping the cost of capital high means investors and corporates are pressured to deliver and will continue looking at later-stage assets.
It is really positive news that IPO announcements with genuine generalist investor appetite are back in the news on a regular basis. One hopes this will recycle financial returns back into the venture investor pipeline in due course, even given the above caveats.
In the anticipated financing landscape, proof-of-concept data for any innovative programme, including early clinical data, compelling mechanism of action data, associated biomarkers and a credible route to market may be on investors’ and Pharma partners’ checklists.
The pressure on emerging companies to secure the right information quickly will require smart and efficient strategies – something this region’s leading entrepreneurs and start-up investors have an enviable track record in delivering over past decades.
The length of the ramp from ideation to critical data with the perceived strength of the management teams to execute on the plan are increasingly the differentiating characteristics sought by investors. When companies are forced to focus existing funds or new investment on clinical stage assets, it is clear why there has been a downsizing of early-stage R & D activity and hence vacant lab space.
Companies such as Healx and PharmEnable in the emerging field of TechBio, using data driven approaches to biology challenges, are further demonstrating how in silico routes to new experimental assets that require laboratory activity later and the coming to market of a high volume of new lab space has exacerbated the current facilities high vacancy rates.
These dynamics, whilst challenging for all stakeholders, could also be seen to represent an opportunity for the region’s competitiveness and a route to scale our ecosystem going forward.
There are great local success stories of virtual biotechs, including Sareum which was incorporated in 2003 and X01 a decade later, which have demonstrated how a frugal internal approach to creating value can lead to sustained value creation or high value exit, respectively.
The formation and development of a new company by an elite team, leveraging external providers rather than building in-house, can clearly be successful but is also dependent on the external provision available. This is potentially where the excellence of the Greater Cambridge Cluster could be to a degree reimagined for future growth and success.
Playing to the leading-edge innovation this region repeatedly delivers to provide a coordinated ecosystem in which elite team founders can place the core of their company should reduce the timescale to critical data for a credible and informed onward asset development plan to attract investment.
From the academic excellence to pre-clinical CRO providers and professional services in areas such as regulatory, the region has the depth, breadth, excellence and experience on hand to enable our startup and emerging life science companies to stand out.
The success and growth of external collaborative and service provider companies illustrate the value placed on them by primary biotechs and their investors. In lab-based R & D terms this includes institutions such as the Milner Institute delivering a hub of early-stage and translational research collaboration as well as expert tools and platform CROs such as Metrion Biosciences, Domainex, Pharmidex, RxCelerate, bit.bio and Abcam. Outside of the lab examples include professional service providers such as DLRC, Scendea, Marks & Clerk, Mills & Reeve, Taylor Wessing and many others.
There is much messaging about the rise of China as a source of both innovation and speed to achieve critical data on programmes to secure deals. Capital efficiency in the seed stage of a programme is obviously key when there remains a dearth of early-stage investment.
Those leveraging China’s efficiency have shown investor appetite is returning. This region has an exceptional opportunity to benefit from the path China has demonstrated but perhaps with even greater efficiency and confidence when developing truly transformative new medicine discovery programmes.
Scientific collaboration is in the biotech DNA of this region, not least due to the highly networked and trusted environment decades of success has created. Embracing the new world of leaner, faster creation of robust early data, a cluster where plans are developed from day one with external providers and investors, will leave this region globally competitive and scalable with the right policy support.
Support to grow the CRO and service provider sector in tandem with academia and elite primary biotechs should see the region flourish well into the future.
