IVD Industry Roadmap outlines Potential for UK Leadership

A report outlining the potential of the UK’s in vitro diagnostics industry (IVD)to help boost UK economic growth while improving health in the UK and for people worldwide, has been launched by Cambridge Design Partnership, in partnership with CPI, the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI).

Funded by Innovate UK, A Strategic Technology Roadmap for the UK In Vitro Diagnostics Industry defines the key technologies and strategies that can place the UK at the forefront of this global industry during the next 10 years.

Many of the technologies at the heart of this thriving industry were pioneered in the UK, from lateral flow tests to the genetic sequencing technology used in around 80% of the world’s genetic sequencing systems. But the UK is not at the top table of the growing IVD industry, with recent estimates suggesting it accounts for just 3% of a £90bn industry. While the UK excels at research, it is held back by the commercialisation process. As a result, many UK inventions are commercialised by overseas companies – start-ups and scale-ups are acquired by global leaders and we are yet to see the emergence of major UK IVD companies or state-of-the-art R&D centres from the global industry, the report states.

Setting out a programme of change to help meet the clinical needs of the future and support the UK IVD industry, government and Innovate UK to make informed investment and capability development decisions the Roadmap is a resource for industry leaders, government and the UK’s health tech companies.

Pari Datta, Principal Consultant in Strategy at Cambridge Design Partnership and the Roadmap’s lead author, says, “It’s hugely encouraging that the UK continues to lead the science behind all the major opportunities for the IVD industry – just as it did before for lateral flow testing and DNA sequencing. But we’ve yet to create global IVD industry leaders of our own or attract investment in UK R&D from global IVD leaders. Our strong position in research means we can change that. We can become one of the global IVD leaders of the future, boosting national economic growth and taking a global leadership role while improving patients’ lives worldwide.”

The Roadmap is part of the Health Technology Regulatory and Innovation Programme, an Innovate UK-sponsored initiative led by CPI in partnership with ABHI. This programme delivers a package of support to UK health tech companies to help them meet the regulatory requirements for developing, commercialising, and deploying their medical technology in the UK and globally.  

A second report – Challenges and Opportunities for the UK HealthTech Industry – was also published at the same time (January 11). For this report, CPI and ABHI worked with over 350 small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Innovate UK and health tech stakeholders to identify the key challenges faced by the UK health tech SME community. 

Dr Arun Harish, Strategy Director at CPI, said: “As a Catapult centre leading on HealthTech in the UK that works with many health SMEs in the sector, we understand how hard they find the navigation of the regulatory approvals process and the route to commercialisation. These two first-of-their-kind reports will help industry, policymakers, government, funding agencies and the wider HealthTech ecosystem immensely with shaping future interventions to grow the HealthTech industry in the UK. They also highlight the need for further intervention to support UK HealthTech businesses in developing and scaling-up innovative technologies, which will ultimately benefit UK populations.”

The roadmap is available for download

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