‘Megafund’ to boost drug development

The Mayor of London – Boris Johnson – is planning to create a £10 billion ‘megafund’ to make the search for new drugs easier in London and across the country.

At a conference, Mr Johnson announced his plans to set up a fund that will enable simultaneous investments in multiple drugs at different stages of development by encouraging more large pools of capital to fund opportunities in the sector and long-term funding.

Mr Johnson said: “London is one of the most powerful scientific discovery engines in the world, home to an incredible cornucopia of research, medical and financial pre-eminence. By hosting this conference we hope to harness our role as a global financial centre that will bring more life-saving drugs to market and deliver a huge boost to the economy.”

The funding was discussed at a City Hall event that brought together leading figures from the industry, finance and research. It was suggested that the fund could be raised by using a mix of debt and equity finance or by taking advantage of a programme set up jointly by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank.

Eliot Forster, Executive Chair of MedCity, said: “If you compare the UK to other leading life sciences hubs, we are extremely competitive – we have huge innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial drive, and we are increasingly agile in translating exciting research into spin-out companies. Capital is a key ingredient that grows those companies and brings therapies to market, and at the moment we simply don’t have enough of it. If we want to develop another GSK or AstraZeneca, if we want to get a full return on the investment we put into our research base, and if we want better therapies more quickly, this is an issue we have to address.”