Biotech firms urge academics to follow up ideas

British academics patent their discoveries less frequently and are more reluctant to initiate technology transfer than their American peers, which is holding back progress in biotechnology, says the UK biotech industry organisation.

The relative lack of patented innovations from UK academics was listed as the first of nine “pain points” creating barriers to progress which are identified by the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) in its report A Vision for the UK Life Sciences Sector in 2025, published on 28 April.

The report outlines goals and targets for the UK biotech industry over the next decade and calls on research leaders in the life sciences to help build a “third global cluster” of innovation in the UK to match the biotechnology centres of California and Massachusetts.