British-educated life scientists at home and abroad share a heritage of great achievement which continues demonstrably and collaboratively amid the COVID pandemic. Since founding BELS 20 years ago, we’ve operated under the premise that only good things can come from strengthening connections between British-educated life scientists and the UK health and life sciences. With this …
The success of the UK’s response to covid-19 has come with industry and academia collaborating at speed, along with government support for a nimble, empowered UK Vaccine Taskforce, well equipped to evaluate potential vaccine candidates and free to secure contracts outside of Brexit–negotiating volume, pricing and delivery. This allowed the UK to go it alone …
The most visible work now being done in Oxford is on the vaccine front where the University, its spinout Vaccitech, and its partnership with AstraZeneca are garnering global headlines for making warp-speed progress on their vaccine. This has been topped off with news of BARDA providing AstraZeneca with up to $1.2 billion to fund Phase …
Oxford on Steroids—Innovating to Save Lives amid the Age of Covid Read More »
Much like the Bletchley Park codebreakers helped win World War II by breaking the German Enigma Code, a swiftly-recruited, specialist-volunteer team from Barts Health, Queen Mary University of London and Genomics England is assembling at Charterhouse Square in Central London to decipher the highly-complex, virulent-virus COVID-19. Led by Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, Chief Scientist at …
With a new decade upon us, we finally have some clarity and go-forward in the UK’s political system. Meanwhile, the UK life sciences environment has continued to go from strength to strength despite three years of Brexit purgatory. Clear signals are emanating from Number 10 that science and life sciences are viewed as vital to the …
UK Life Sciences 2020–inspirational, aspirational, forging ahead Read More »
When I moved to the US over 30 years ago I was chasing a woman, though I assume most of my British-educated colleagues working outside the UK in the life sciences left to take up new jobs. Regardless, none of us kicked up quite the public storm that’s coming from Harry and Meghan’s decision to step …
What do Harry & Meghan have in common with BELS? Read More »
For the UK to fulfill its international aspirations in the life sciences, tapping into the soft power of its influential diaspora, including the 3,000+ life science leaders within the British Expats in Life Sciences (BELS) global community, should be a high priority for UK organisations across our sector—government, quasi-government orgs, industry, academia, charities, healthcare orgs, service providers, …
Soft Power Can Deliver a Powerful Punch for UK Life Sciences Read More »
As we head into one of the biggest bun fights of the year at the BIO convention in Philadelphia, hopes are high for new learning and links, seeing and being seen, and warming up or booking business. Attendance at BIO, BIO Europe, Medica, ASCO and the like is important to annual marketing efforts. But there’s a …
Beyond BIO & Annual Assemblies—Targeting Decision Makers Read More »
BELS Brexit Perspective, March 22, 2019 As we lurch onward in this Brexit purgatory, there is no end in sight to chaos, delays and uncertainty. And our hard-earned international reputation for pragmatism and a functioning democracy is being mightily tested with our politicians seemingly paralyzed. The UK has been successful for a long time largely …
British Expats in Life Sciences (BELS) is engaging with British-trained health and life science leaders around the globe With major changes afoot impacting our laws, regulations, trade and talent, discussions at the Summit will centre on the UK in a post-Brexit world and the significant work underway to position our sector as a centre of scientific …
In competing for our attention, newspaper headlines and television sound bites assault our senses, beckoning us with sensational breaking stories. At times, the news can emanate from someone’s posturing (defined as ‘behaving in a way that is intended to impress or mislead’). An extreme case in point is the interminable cycle of this US presidential …
When we survey our lives retrospectively, we find instances of specific collisions with people that helped to shape us over time. Marriages, friendships and business opportunities are born, kindled and flow from such fortuitous interactions. These collisions hold the potential to “spark” great things. Years ago a friend encouraged me to read The Tipping Point …
I vividly remember waking up June 24th to the astounding news that the Leave vote had prevailed on the EU Referendum. There followed some wailing and gnashing (in the interests of disclosure I had voted Remain) before my customary shrug of the shoulders as I soon came to terms with a changed reality. To quote …
Volatility in global markets continues with selloffs, recoveries, gains, losses, sterling is weak… Successful investors see opportunities in the face of market volatility. Meanwhile, most of us in the health and life science sector around the world are focused on the work underpinning the fundamentals that build value. Brexit will be sorted eventually. Some things …
In the relative blink of an eye, certain events in the past few days have highlighted two clear home truths: the disaffection of the voting UK majority with their political leaders and the uncertainty of where our toils in the life sciences will lead us as we move through the lengthy drug approval process. First, …
