The UK–Japan life sciences relationship, past and future

An Expert View from Neelam Patel, chief executive of London life sciences cluster organization MedCity, which led the recent UK delegation to BioJapan 2022, exploring why Japan is such an important partner for the UK and future areas of opportunity.

As the cluster organization representing life sciences in London, MedCity - in partnership with the UK capital’s three Academic Health Science Centres - has targeted Japan for international outreach to attract FDI and grow strategic R&D partnerships between UK and Japanese institutions, since our formation in 2014.

Why? Japan is one of the UK’s most important science and research partners. According to the UK Science and Innovation Network, the UK is currently the fourth largest market for life sciences investment from Japan, particularly in oncology, immunotherapy and aging. Not only that, but the quality of UK-Japan research is 3.5-times the world average (measured by field-weighted citation impact), higher than with the USA, Germany or China for both countries. In certain fields such as medicine, the quality of UK-Japan research is more than 6.5-times the world average.