UK biotechs suffered restricted financing in 2025

Both the magnitude of equity financing and task superior attracted by UK biotechs dropped successful 2025, compounding concerns for the level of the country’s beingness subject manufacture attractiveness connected the planetary stage.

As per a study from the BioIndustry Association (BIA), a UK-based commercialized association, equity financing and task superior dropped 49% and 13%, respectively, successful 2025 compared to 2024. While the magnitude of biotech backing is down globally, concerns astir the UK’s superior travel are heightened owed to the high-level of technological expertise successful universities and early-stage companies.

A abstracted study by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) published successful September 2025 said that the UK is astatine hazard of losing its world-leading beingness sciences presumption owed to concern being captured elsewhere connected the planetary stage.

The full concern raised by UK biotechs was £1.9bn ($2.59bn) successful 2025, down from £3.7bn ($5.05bn) successful 2024, arsenic per the BIA's UK biotech financing report. Peak concern implicit the past 5 years came successful 2021, buoyed by innovation successful the Covid-19 attraction sector.

The deficiency of archetypal nationalist offerings (IPOs) besides reflects a twelvemonth of restricted growth. As per the BIA, nary UK biotechs went nationalist successful 2025, marking the 3rd consecutive twelvemonth without caller listings. The fig of IPOs successful a assemblage is simply a awesome of economical strength, capitalist confidence, and level of innovation.

In a foreword to the report, BIA’s managing manager Jane Wall said: “The geopolitical scenery is precarious and the IPO model is entering its 5th twelvemonth of restricted activity. Later-stage leads are inactive dominated by planetary capital, and the mandate for 2026 is clear: the UK Government indispensable present to enactment a captious assemblage of the economy, and home investors indispensable beryllium encouraged to deploy present portion we proceed to invited overseas capital.”

There were affirmative signs that 2026 could herald a stronger biotech landscape. In March 2025, UK-based Isomorphic Labs raised $600m, with backing from Google, successful its archetypal outer backing circular arsenic it pushes guardant with artificial quality (AI)-driven cause discovery. Verdiva Bio, besides UK-based, secured $410m successful a Series A financing circular to beforehand its suite of obesity drugs.

A surge successful Q4 M&A woody enactment reached its highest quarterly woody number of the year, signalling the commencement of a “revitalised appetite for our broader SME ecosystem,” according to Wall.

Indeed, this was marked astatine the commencement of 2026, erstwhile Amgen agreed to get Dark Blue Therapeutics successful an $840m deal. UK-based biotech Dark Blue has developed a pipeline of oncology assets, including DBT 3757, an investigational myeloid/lymphoid leukaemia translocation 1 and 3 (MLLT1/3)-targeted macromolecule degrader.