Investment in Life Sciences in Scotland: Challenges and Opportunities

As the global life sciences industry changes, the most successful regions in attracting inward investment will be those that evolve and adapt to provide the most attractive offer. In Scotland, the government is developing an environment to “push” its life sciences sector to complement the strong “pull” that these changes in the global life sciences industry and in investor sentiment have created.

The Scottish Government and the life sciences industry have developed a strategy that aims to anchor in Scotland those businesses that provide vital skills and market access; increase the number of more resilient companies and comprehensive supply chains; and attract new inward investment and talent that will build on Scotland’s existing capabilities.

The Scottish Government is improving on the country’s existing strengths and aims to capitalise on prior investment in Scotland’s research excellence, particularly in areas such as stem cells and regenerative medicine and ”precision medicine”, where there are significant current and emerging commercial opportunities.

EmergingCo: A Virtual “South-South” Biotech Model

The article proposes a “virtual” biotech model for the emerging markets – termed EmergingCo – and develops a comparative financial model to argue that such a virtual biotech can deliver drug candidates from discovery through proof-of-concept (Phase II) more cost effectively than the traditional drug development paradigm. Data from published studies on drug development costs have been compared with a cost structure model for EmergingCo using a framework where all R&D can be accomplished through a virtual network of partnerships within emerging markets. A couple of case studies from China and India are used to lend support to the cost structure model. Such a model, either as a venture backed company or a virtual unit of big pharma, could provide an alternate vehicle for delivering mid-to late stage clinical candidates, similar to Lilly’s Chorus model.