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Britain is a
leader in academic scientific work and also home to two of the
world's top drugmakers - GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca - yet
emerging life science companies often find it difficult to
secure funding.
The suggested new pool of debt and equity finance is designed to
help plug that gap and is one of a number of ideas being floated
at a conference in London bringing together leading figures in
industry, finance and research.
The meeting includes representatives from Eli Lilly, Pfizer,
Imperial Innovations, Silicon Valley Bank [SIVBV.UL], the
European Investment Bank [EIB.UL] and JP Morgan.
"We hope to harness our role as a global financial center that
will bring more life-saving drugs to market and deliver a huge
boost to the economy," Johnson said.
The suggested megafund would be able to invest in multiple drugs
at different stages of development, with investors receiving a
percentage of the royalties from successful products or
licensing revenues that result.
($1 = 0.6376 pounds)
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Pravin Char)
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