Gaps In Skills Supply Places UK Biomedical Competitiveness At A Tipping Point

The report, Skills Needs for Biomedical Research: creating the pools of talent to win the innovation race, reveals that British students are lacking the core laboratory and mathematical skills for research and there is a deficit in the supply of critical subjects to support translational medicine - the process by which early research is translated into candidate medicines that can be tested on patients.

Skills Needs for Biomedical Research is a follow up to the 2005 report by the ABPI, Sustaining The Skills Pipeline in the Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical Industries. Many of the issues of concern highlighted in the 2005 report are still of concern today and the industry is calling on all stakeholders to work together to urgently address these gaps.

The gaps are leaving the UK science base increasingly open to competition from countries such as China, Singapore and India, who are growing their skills supply and competing on cost.

“The UK pharmaceutical industry is at a tipping point when it comes to skills supply,” said Dr Philip Wright, Director of Science and Technology at the ABPI.

“If the trend continues, the UK stands to lose an industry that contributes billions of pounds to its economy every year and the UK academic base will not be sustainable in the long term. We are calling for Government to link more effectively funding for key university courses with its science and innovation strategy. Universities should receive higher levels of funding to invest in training and education in strategically important subjects.”

Dr Wright said: “Successful biomedical innovation requires a range of skills in both the public and private sector. We need to create pools of talent to attract and retain investment if we are to compete in the long-term.”

For further information, please contact:
Crispin Slee (ABPI office) 020 7747 1410