by Tony Jones, CEO, One Nucleus

Dark Times with Pharma:

There is no escaping that the life science sector news over the past weeks has been somewhat dominated by the concerns and actions raised by major Pharma when announcing the withdrawal or on-hold status of further investments in UK R&D, citing the commercial environment in the UK as the primary reason. A review of the various commentaries would appear to suggest the wider reasons driving such announcements include:

• Yes, the commercial environment in the UK when it comes to adoption and pricing of new medicines
• A desire to respond to the policy changes in the US
• Genuine uncertainty over where the innovation pipeline will develop best in the future in terms of geography
• Tough times in the financial environment mean budgets are reduced, resulting in global cost-cutting measures and the UK getting caught in that exercise

All the above reasons feel credible, and we can only urge our UK government to return to the table with Pharma to create solutions, given it is hard to think the absence of major Pharma R&D in an ecosystem has anything but a negative impact on innovation and translational research.

Cambridge Provides a Shot in the Arm for Life Sciences

Among the dark clouds, however, Cambridge provided a much-needed dose of energy, celebration and optimism to restore some confidence and can-do attitude. It will in no way feel better for those directly affected by redundancies and budget cuts, but there was greater optimism from speakers, including Sir Patrick Vallance, Shaun Grady, Dame Kate Bingham, Steve Bates, Martin Rutter and others at September’s BioCentury Grand Rounds Europe conference in Cambridge. 

Reassurance that whilst the above challenges are real, the fundamental strengths and opportunities remain, including major R&D resources such as UK BioBank, NHS Data, clinical trial reform and, of course, many unmet medical needs to be addressed. Celebrations at the Business Weekly Awards gave grounds to recognise exciting achievements by the likes of Neobe Therapeutics, Alchemab Therapeutics, Nuclera, Constructive Bio and Susan Hill of Mestag Therapeutics, who were all winners. The above, overlaid with the intense Cambridge Tech Week, whilst hearing of the US-UK Tech Investment deal during President Trump’s state visit, provided energy, positivity and hope for the UK’s innovation environment in a rapidly evolving, tech-enabled life sciences world. Such fundamentals and change that play to UK strengths, coupled with (hopefully) a productive outcome on negotiations on the commercial environment, will see the current job losses and lab space vacations reversed in the near to medium term.

Deals in the Region:

It is important not to lose sight of the fact that some life science deals are converting too, in drug discovery, health tech, agri-tech and digital health. In case you missed some of the news flow in the One Nucleus ‘home patch’ of greater Cambridge and London, those announced deals with reported values on PitchBook are listed in the table below.

One Nucleus Evolution & Initiatives

Summer 2025 has seen some significant developments at One Nucleus as follows:

The One Nucleus Team:

July saw the recruitment of Philippa Clark as the Director of Business Development. Helping develop the One Nucleus offer to our members, and with a focus on London in particular, Philippa is a great addition to the team and is already building on our key strategic relationships in London with hubs such as LBIC, ARC Hammersmith, Canary Wharf Group, Kadans and more, as they and their tenants get increasingly familiar with One Nucleus. 

Harriet Thornton joining as the new Events Administrator enables others in the team to spend even more time with members to understand their needs and what may help.

Being Precise in One Nucleus Support:

The approach to the development of new medicines, devices, diagnostics and technologies to improve patient outcomes is increasingly with precision medicine in mind. It is One Nucleus’s belief that any membership group supporting life science companies should aim to offer similarly tailored support on top of the standard membership packages. Putting our money behind this belief, One Nucleus has invested in key industry data sources, company pitching opportunities and key people support initiatives over the summer:

• Going for Gold & One-ON-One

Top of the list with almost every life science business we meet is how we can help them target the right investors at the right time with the right value proposition. Obviously, the leadership teams in those companies know themselves better than we do, but subscribing to PitchBook and Biotechgate, for example, now enables One Nucleus to offer detailed insights and contacts that emerging companies struggle to afford or access. This has been launched under the Going for Gold and One-ON-One initiatives that are accessible by all members.

Check out how you can gain such information at https://onenucleus.com/going-gold-one-nucleus.

• Company Pitching

Opportunities to showcase and pitch to investors, potential partners and customers are acutely sought by growing life science companies, especially as this prolonged downturn in bio-financing continues and is felt across the life science value chain. It is not only investment that arises from pitching: however, being too blinkered to the advice and connectivity within an ecosystem can be very detrimental to a company’s chances of success. Responding to this need, One Nucleus has created even more chances to pitch for our companies, such as the April BioWednesday, which showcased 20 companies and inspired others. This will be followed by the upcoming October BioWednesday with neuroscience companies pitching, and then, excitingly, a pitching stream of 50 companies added to the annual Genesis conference.