Biotechnology Clusters in the U.K.: Lessons from Localisation in the Commercialisation of Science

Abstract

Today, U.S. biotechnology firms dominate the growing therapeutics and diagnostics sectors despite most of the key discoveries being made by European, and especially U.K. scientists. Lessons have been learned about the economic importance of commercialisation of bioscience. Within Europe, the U.K. is the leading challenger of U.S. hegemony in biotechnology exploitation. Knowledge-driven clusters of start-ups and established smaller and medium-sized businesses have developed in Cambridge and Oxford along with nascent agglomerations in Surrey and Scotland. They are responsible for the turnaround. As in the U.S., intimate links with large pharmaceutical firms and publicly-funded research centres are key to spin-out businesses, suggesting a generic "new economy" model. The specific problem at present is scale and the need to make up ten years lost ground. But the evidence is there that the U.K. is taking up the competitive challenge.