The Scottish government has identified life sciences as one of the nation’s key sectors that can grow, thrive and attract incoming talent and inward investment.

Mark Cook has recently been appointed industry co-chair – alongside business and enterprise minister Ivan McKee – of the Life Sciences Scotland Industry Leadership Group, which brings together government, industry, trade bodies, NHS, academia and enterprise agencies to deliver an ambitious strategy to make Scotland a global centre of innovation in human and animal health, agriculture and aquaculture.

Mark Cook believes Scotland has much to offer life sciences innovators who want to move ahead by tapping into a ready-made network:

“If you're looking for good data connectivity, the ability to work with world-leading universities, a skilled and enthusiastic population and a receptive government willing to support and work with you – then Scotland has all of these things in spades.

“I realise many people around the world don't immediately think of Scotland as a place to come – they perhaps think instead of the ‘golden triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London. But we can rival them. Our job is raising awareness that, if you look a wee bit further north, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

“In fact, Scotland has one of the largest Life Science clusters in Europe, with some 200 medical technologies companies and about 150 pharma services businesses – some 750 organisations overall, collectively employing about 40,000 people.

“It may be a relatively small sector for Scotland in terms of overall employment, but it does make some very significant contributions to productivity, innovation and the economy.

“Indeed, the most recent figures from 2019 calculate the gross value added per head from people working in life sciences was about £88,000, against our Scottish average of £53,000.”

The Scottish government has set up a network of industry leadership groups across various sectors to bring industry leaders to the same table as government, the public sector and universities, to deliver growth strategies and fix problems.

Mr Cook, who is Director of Government Affairs for the medical technology company Medtronic in addition to other public roles such as Vice Chair of NHS Scotland Pension Scheme, believes that already having these relationships in place helped the life sciences sector both to weather the storm of the pandemic and meet its healthcare challenges:

“Covid has been a little bit of a double-edged sword.

“On one side, it might have slowed down some work but, equally, when Scotland needed to react to the pandemic, research and innovation was adopted at scale and pace.”

In 2017, the Scottish government published a life sciences strategy that set the sector a target of almost doubling its turnover to £8bn a year by 2025. While he believes it will be wise to revisit that target and consider refreshing the strategy after a two year pandemic, Mark Cook says the key elements of the strategy are as relevant now as they were nearly five years ago:

“I think we're well set up to come out of covid and build as things return to normal.

“As we increasingly move to harness the opportunities of digital systems and data, Scotland is very well placed to deliver. People are seeing the opportunity from Scotland’s linked healthcare data sets. They see all that is being achieved from the triple helix of industry, the NHS and academia working together. And that – coupled with the efforts that people are putting in to try and bring people here to invest, live and work – is moving the needle.

“So, I'm still very optimistic we can meet our ambitions.”

Mark Cook says his 20 years working across the health sector including in biologicals/ pharmaceuticals, medical technology and consultancy, have convinced him that the life sciences sector offers real career opportunities for young Scots.

“Our sector offers excellent, sustainable careers. There’s so much that life sciences encompass. And in fact, there's some great events that have been going on to showcase that. Recently the Universities of St. Andrews, Dundee and Abertay led an early career information day to try to get people interested in our sector.

“And, while of course there are lots of people working in lab coats, as an industry we also need finance professionals, data scientists, marketing professionals, manufacturers, drivers... I mean, there's everything that a large industry would need. So working with the colleges and universities, we need to sow the seeds and build the careers because ours is a very attractive field for a young person to come into.”

 

Read more: How the Internet of Things can transform health & care; Roadmap for Scottish health innovation cluster; Innovators need ‘strong understanding’ of regulation;

 

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