South East

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Led by Oxford, South East of England is home to a myriad list of homegrown companies.

From the South East region, there are 22 UK biotechnology companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with a combined market value of over £7.25 billion. What's more is that there are an estimated 270 bioscience organizations within the region. “Numerically, the region is very strong in the biosciences sector.  Several leading players like Shire Pharmaceuticals, Celltech, and Amersham Biosciences have their world headquarters. In fact, we have companies from across the globe with their foothold here. From the US, we have Genzyme, Biogen,  Abbott Murex, Charles River, Vertex, and Serologicals, among others. From Japan come Takeda, Yamaouchi, Kowa, etc. European majors Qiagen and Evotec OAI are also here,â€? informed Clare Robinson, sector manager, pharma, bio & healthcare, SEEDA. Indeed, the region employees 28,600 employees in over 650 establishments in natural sciences R&D. It is renowned for its excellence in research in areas such as bioinformatics, chromobiology, environmental technology, fermentation technology, human nutrition, neurodegenerative diseases, pharmacogenetics, psychopharmacology, toxicology, viral diseases etc.

The region is home to 25 institutions offering life sciences related courses and about 60 active university departments which provide ideal platform for research  partnerships. Oxford University is renowned for genetics, immunocology, cardiovascular and toxicology. Besides, it has a range of institutes like the Wellcome Trust for Human Genetics, which undertakes genetics research and the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, famous for penicillin work. The School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sussex, especially the Neuroscience center and the Genome Damage and Stability research center are among the top notch centers. The University of Kent's Department of  Biosciences has one of the highest research budgets. The list is quite huge. This is the reason why several companies are located in the region. Besides there is ISIS Innovation, a subsidiary company of the University of Oxford, which help in technology transfers and spinouts from the Oxford University.

The life sciences companies are spread across the region, but again there are sub-clusters. “The Oxfordshire cluster is one of the most successful bioscience clusters. There are over 120 biotech companies, labs, and research organizations in these clusters,� informed Lin Bateson of Oxfordshire Bioscience Network. She added that companies like Powderject Pharmaceuticals, Oxford Biomedica, British Biotech, and Oxford Glycosciences have exploited the research at the Oxford University and spun out to become big. Kent has a dispersed cluster and there are companies with large manufacturing bases in this region like Pfizer, Genzyme, GSK, and Abbott. Even research work is carried out by some in their units. This region is host to several science parks. Universities like the Oxford and the Surrey have affiliated science parks. Besides these other successful parks include Chilworth Research Centre (Hampshire), Sittingbourne Research Center (Kent), Reading Innovation Center (Berkshire), etc.

Promoting the South East's biotechnology capabilities in the global markets and providing the right access is South East England Bio (seebio), a partnership between the SEEDA and the regions bio-network organizations: Southern Bioscience, Oxfordshire Bioscience network, and Life sciences for Business in Kent.