The UK biotech sector is at a critical point in terms of funding. A significant number of UK biotech companies are searching for investment and have less than twelve months cash left to fund their research programmes. It is therefore essential to address this problem for an industry which, without sustained investment, will find it impossible to convert innovative bioscience into the new medicines that will benefit patients, families and society and are vital to the future success of the UK economy. To tackle this urgent requirement, the Bioscience Futures Forum (BFF), commissioned a UK Biotech Business Development Wargame.
Scenario
The UK leads Europe in terms of investment in University biotechnology research and start-ups and is second only to the US in terms of biotechnology patents registered and businesses launched. However, compared to the US, the UK has failed to create large, successful biotechnology companies. There is significant variance in the business environments of the UK and US, with the US benefiting from:
- Higher investment for drug development
- Active support from large institutional investors
- Greater access to capital and more liquidity in equity markets
The wargame challenged conventional ideas about why this variance in the UK and US markets exists and focused on developing and testing new investment paradigms. Through a series of dynamic interactions, practical proposals were developed to change the way biotech companies are funded in the UK. The following questions were tackled:
- How can the UK facilitate more specialist investors and investment vehicles in biotechnology?
- How can more capital be made available to optimally develop the sector?
- How can risk reward equations persuade investors to support biotechnology?
- How can a more favourable regulatory environment be structured to encourage the sustained development of innovative and profitable drug candidates?
About the Wargame
Wargames are dynamic vehicles for testing strategies, building resilience and simulating complex environments. Wargames provide quicker, more thoroughly informed and strategic solutions to business problems than conventional methods of problem solving.
The aim of the game was to test and develop the key strategic levers that will make a difference to the ways in which UK biotech companies are funded. The whole event was filmed, with the progress of each team being displayed in real time through a range of digital ‘dashboards’.
Peter Day's report on the game for BBC Radio 4 can be accessed at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/inbusiness/inbusiness_20080828.shtml Download The official brochure of the event here: 
The official BFF War-game website: www.bff-wargame.com
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