Communities across the country are benefitting from new treatments and advances as a result of the government’s life sciences sector plan. 

In the first year, the plan has helped attract £ 3 billion of investment, deliver new medicines and cut waiting times for the approval of life-saving treatments.

This is helping to give patients access to transformative new treatments, like the world’s first-ever immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes, which was approved for use by the NHS in England and Wales just last month.

Overall, the average wait time to set up clinical trials has dropped from 169 to 122 days in the first half of 2025 to 2026 and patients are also expected to get new medicines up to 6 months sooner under the new joint MHRA-NICE approval process.

Major private investments are creating hotbeds of innovation and revitalising regional economies up and down the country.

These include a £300 million backing from AstraZeneca to support its operations in its Cambridge headquarters and a facility in Macclesfield using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to discover new drugs, Moderna opening its new innovation center in Harwell with a £1 billion UK R&D investment commitment over the next 10 years, and UCB’s £ 500 million investment in a new world-class R&D hub in Windlesham, Surrey, which is developing a range of transformative medicines for immunological diseases.

The life sciences sector is key to driving growth and creating jobs in every corner of the nation, generating around £147 billion in turnover and employing some 360,000 people–equivalent to a city the size of Leicester–and nearly half of these jobs are based outside of London, the East and South East of England.

The new, dedicated Jobs Plan will help unlock the talent needed for 66,000 additional jobs in priority occupations across the sector by 2035, from lab technicians and chemical scientists to software developers.

Liz Kendall, Secretary, Science, Innovation, and Technology, said, “In its first year, our life sciences sector plan is delivering cutting-edge treatments to tackle cancer, new opportunities for British businesses to start up and grow, and well-paid jobs that improve lives for families. A thriving life sciences sector is good for NHS patients and good for economic growth across the UK. People in every part of the country are already starting to see the benefits of our plan–up to 66,000 jobs ready to be unlocked, slashed waiting times for clinical trials, and new medicines being rolled out to patients. When our life sciences sector succeeds, it improves all of our lives.

This announcement also marks the formal incorporation of the Health Data Research Service (HDRS) as a company, moving the program from planning to delivery and marking a major milestone in one of the life sciences sector plan’s headline commitments.

HDRS will help simplify and accelerate secure access to health data for approved researchers, helping scientists spend less time navigating fragmented systems and more time generating the evidence and discoveries that could transform patient care.

Developed alongside the Modern Industrial Strategy and the NHS 10 Year Health Plan, the life sciences sector plan sets out how the UK can harness its world-leading strengths in science, innovation and health to drive economic growth, create high-quality jobs and improve outcomes for patients.

Under the life sciences sector plan and broader Modern Industrial Strategy, the UK has cemented its status as one of the top destinations for life sciences investment, supported by government measures like the £520 million Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund. In the 12 months since its establishment, it has crowded in over £ 700 million in investment, creating or safeguarding more than 1300 jobs.