LifeArc unveils new strategy and £1.3 billion spend to drive life-changing science

Today, we reinforce our commitment to transform the lives of patients as we announce our new strategy which sets our direction and priorities until 2030.   

We plan to spend up to £1.3 billion over the period to 2030 – that’s double our average annual spend – to help deliver new diagnostics, drugs, devices, and digital solutions that transform the ways diseases are treated. And we aim to attract additional money, skills, and resources from others to have an even bigger impact.  

With this level of investment, a new strategy, and by collaborating with others, we want to deliver life-changing solutions and play a leading role in building the UK into a life sciences superpower. 

Building on strong foundations to drive innovation

Scientific understanding is constantly evolving. The latest advances in technology, together with scientists’ imagination, determination, and knowledge, could transform healthcare. 

But translating science is a long, expensive and risky process. Spotting opportunities and knowing what to do with them requires specialist knowledge. Too few ideas ever make it out of the lab.  

This is where we come in. We move more ideas down the research pipeline towards the clinic. 

With our unique skills in translation, specialist knowledge and funding we can continue to help UK life science innovation to thrive. 

Our ambitious strategy lays out how we will work with others to make a difference to patients’ lives. We will focus our efforts through three strategic pillars. 

Dr Melanie Lee CBE, CEO of LifeArc said: 

“Our commitment to invest and our new strategy shows we are now ambitious on an entirely new scale. We want to invest significant resources so that patient-focused life science innovations in the UK can truly flourish. 

“I am really excited about our new strategy and the difference we, together with our partners, will make for patients.’’ 

Complex health challenges ready for translation

We have identified some complex health conditions where patients need treatment options, and the scientific knowledge is at the right stage and ready to translate into the clinic where we can make a difference to patients.   

One of these is motor neurone disease (MND), a neurodegenerative condition where there is currently no cure. 

“We were delighted by the news this week, where the government announced £375 million will be invested into a range of neurodegenerative diseases over the next five years, including at least £50 million for MND-related research,” explains Melanie.

“This announcement confirmed MND is at the right stage to focus our efforts so we can work towards making a difference for patients, their families and carers.”  

We are making plans to tackle MND, and one of these is to form a new MND partnership with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), MND Association and My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. This will pool expertise and resources across the research community to deliver new treatments for MND, faster. 

We also want to tackle serious intractable respiratory infections that affect people living with cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis.  

Ultimately, we may tackle broader healthcare themes. 

Find out more 

Read our new strategy in full (PDF – 7 Mb)

If you are from academic research, a charity, an early-stage company, an investor, or industry and would like to explore working together, please get in touch.