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British Business Bank Life Sciences Investment Programme successfully boosting life sciences funding, finds independent assessment

Press release 13 November 2025

  • Cornerstone commitments of £150m have supported fundraising through challenging market conditions
  • £689m leveraged from the private sector, exceeding the programme’s objective of £400m from 60% capital deployment
  • The programme has £100m in dry power to further invest in life sciences

The British Business Bank Life Sciences Investment Programme is successfully addressing the funding gap in UK life sciences, according to an independent evaluation published today. 

Launched in 2021, the Life Sciences Investment Programme is a £250 million initiative that aims to increase the supply of funding to the UK’s life sciences ecosystem by making cornerstone investments into specialist life sciences venture capital funds. 

The Life Sciences Investment Programme does not operate in isolation and is supplementary to the Bank’s Patient Capital Funds programme, which has committed a further £285m to 10 life science funds (£435m including LSIP commitments). The Bank also began co-investing into UK life science companies in 2021, directly increasing the size of later stage funding rounds. To date, it has invested £180m in 19 companies. 

The evaluation, undertaken by Ipsos UK found strong evidence of Life Sciences Investment Programme's additionality at the fund level. As of May 2025, the Life Sciences Investment Programme has committed £150 million to three new specialist life sciences growth funds. In all three cases, the Bank’s commitment acted as a critical cornerstone investment. 

Fund managers stated that, without Life Sciences Investment Programme, their funds would have been significantly delayed, smaller, or may not have materialised at all in such a challenging market. The Bank’s rigorous due diligence was also cited as a valuable "stamp of approval" that helped attract other private investors.

The programme has already exceeded its £400 million target for private sector leverage with funds securing an additional £689 million despite the programme only committing £150 million of its allocated £250 million. 

The early results on performance are promising, with two major successful exits from the portfolio; the acquisition of Nimbus Therapeutics by Takeda for an upfront of $4 billion and acquisition of Eyebio by Merck for up to $3 billion, one of the largest returns for a UK biotech company.

Christine Hockley, Managing Director and Co-Head of Funds, British Business Bank, said, 

Our work with life science funds is improving the funding landscape for UK life science companies. The funding gap has historically led promising UK firms to relocate or accept sub-optimal exits, meaning the UK loses out on high-value jobs, intellectual property, and economic returns from its world-leading research base. We will continue to support the sector by helping funds to launch and creating deeper pools of capital, specifically at the growth stage.

Additional funding being deployed

Despite progress, there is still a funding gap in UK life sciences and overall fund sizes are suboptimal, which in turn has an impact on the size of rounds UK companies raise. There are still obstacles in attracting private sector capital and the British Business Bank is often the largest investor in the funds.

To catalyse further investment, the Bank is deploying significant funding for UK life science companies. The Life Sciences Investment Programme still has £100 million of dry power to allocate to funds, which the Bank expects to deploy in the next 4-6 months. 

The programme’s initial deployment was timed with a very difficult fundraising environment across the venture capital sector, which led to slower than anticipated deployment. In reaction, the Bank adjusted to the market conditions and relaxed the UK content requirements in Summer 2023 opening the programme up to more funds. 

Mark Andrews, Investment Director, Funds, Life Sciences, at British Business Bank, 

We need to attract more private sector capital into life sciences. To do so, it’s important first to make the point that – contrary to popular perceptions – life sciences is not disproportionately risky and can in fact deliver market beating returns. The latest research shows that life sciences VC funds outperformed the market in realised returns. However, it’s clear the Bank must continue to act as a pathfinder for private investment. This is the importance of our role as a cornerstone investor, which paves the way for other investors to go into the fund.

The British Business Bank will commit £4 billion of new capital which will be invested across the eight growth-driving sectors of the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy, including life sciences. Last year, the Bank completed its £250m commitment to the Long-Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) initiative, which was matched by £250m of pension investment from Phoenix Group, creating a £500m investment vehicle, with 20% of the fund expected to be invested in life sciences. The Bank is also due to launch the British Growth Partnership, which will seek to invest third party capital from pension funds into high potential growth stage companies in the UK. 

Further Information

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Notes to editors

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government. The British Business Bank’s core programmes support £23bn 1 of finance to almost 64,000 2 smaller businesses.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. With the exception of BBB Investment Services Limited they are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority. BBB Investment Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at British Business Bank.

The above investment is operated by British Patient Capital Limited, a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc. British Patient Capital Limited is registered in England and Wales with company number 11271076, and registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. British Patient Capital makes commitments and invests on its own behalf and on behalf of third-party investors whose investments British Patient Capital manages.

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