By: Julia Kollewe
December 26, 2019
Biotech is one of the most promising parts of the British drug industry, not least according to the investors who continue to pump vast sums into the sector despite the looming shadow of Brexit. In the first eight months of 2018 alone it received nearly £1.6bn, compared with £1.2bn for the entirety of 2017.
An unassuming building in a science park near the Hertfordshire town of Stevenage is hosting four biotech firms that hope to achieve a major breakthrough for the field – and go some way to justifying that faith from investors.
The premise of biotech is radical: it harnesses living organisms to fight diseases. These firms – Adaptimmune, Cell Medica, Autolus and Freeline Therapeutics – are working on so-called living medicines, which use human cells and genes, to treat conditions ranging from hard-to-treat cancers to haemophilia and eye diseases.