Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Global Britain Investment Fund will open for investment for new medicines manufacturing; and what steps he is taking to ensure that the fund supports innovative, smaller biotechnology companies.

The Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF) was announced on 2 March 2022. This £60 million capital grant scheme welcomes applications from SMEs with innovative proposals, including biotechnology companies.

The UK has one of the strongest life sciences industries globally. In 2020, the value of life sciences inward FDI totalled £900m, ranking second only to the US in the number of projects. The UK also performs well in R&D spend, securing £4.8bn by UK pharmaceuticals in 2019 and 18% of our total industrial R&D spend. The new £1.4bn Global Britain Investment Fund (GBIF) will build on the strengthens of this sector by providing £354 million in grant support for UK life sciences manufacturing. This will ensure internationally mobile companies invest in cutting edge, innovative manufacturing projects right here in the UK.