BioHub Birmingham® reports first decade of success

The BioHub, Birmingham celebrates the 10th anniversary of its opening today, and has reported on the success of a decade of life science incubation at the University of Birmingham. 

When the BioHub opened its doors 10 years ago, it was the first facility of its kind in the UK.  

The purpose-built biomedical incubator met a critical need within the city.  While Birmingham had all the vital ingredients for health and medical innovation, including several Universities and large hospitals, early-stage life science companies were not staying in Birmingham.  

As a result, there was an efflux of talent, jobs - and ultimately money - from the local economy.  

The University and regional stakeholders identified the demand for specialised facilities that would enable these companies to stay in the region while they developed and commercialised advanced technologies in healthcare and diagnostics.  

The BioHub provided this much-needed space for incubation, and, in the last decade, 28 companies have incubated there, and 20 of these are still in the region. 

The nine companies currently in the BioHub have developed 21 products, ranging from antimicrobial wound care products to diagnostic testing kits used by the NHS, and many more products and platform technologies in development.  They also provide much needed services for other researchers worldwide, such as sequencing of microbial genes.   

These tenant companies have raised about £16m investment and employ around 70 people, mostly in highly specialised scientific roles. 

David Coleman, CEO of University of Birmingham Enterprise said: “Before the BioHub opened, there was frustration about where our life science companies could set themselves up.  The idea of a shared incubator space with laboratories was widely welcomed by spinouts and other start-ups alike, and the demand was immediate.  We invested in further grow on space a couple of years later, which again was almost immediately snapped up.”

“The BioHub has and continues to be a huge success and has laid the groundwork for a really strong ecosystem in the region, supplemented by support we see through the likes of the West Midlands Innovation Health Accelerator, and very shortly, the new Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA), to be housed in the first building of Birmingham Health Innovation Campus.”

Angie Reynolds, COO of University of Birmingham Enterprise, whose team includes the qualified laboratory staff who work in the BioHub, said: “The BioHub attracts a steady stream of enquiries from companies all over the UK, without being actively marketed, which demonstrates the strong reputation of the incubator and the support it provides. The tenants and stakeholder community are our best ambassadors and it is their vocal advocacy of the facility, its community and the support of Enterprise team that is driving growing interest and confidence in the region." 

While the enterprises housed at the BioHub are currently small companies, the tenants are ambitious for growth, and when companies expand further, they can graduate either to Birmingham Research Park, or the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA) which is due to open later this year.   

Conveniently located on the forthcoming Birmingham Health Innovation Campus – a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Bruntwood SciTech, PHTA is dedicated to health and life sciences, and aims to create opportunities for transformative collaborations between businesses, the University and NHS partners.

Gino Martini, CEO of the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator, said: “On behalf of PHTA I would like to extend our congratulations to the BioHub on this milestone anniversary. It’s vital that innovative life sciences companies are given the support they need to stay in the West Midlands region, and this goes far beyond providing lab space for them to scale up their businesses – both the BioHub and PHTA enable access to expert clinical-academics to help develop, validate and commercialise their health solutions, as well as a talent pool of the country’s most gifted life sciences graduates. As we look towards PHTA’s grand opening, we are excited to continue to collaborate with the BioHub and its tenants to further strengthen the thriving life sciences sector here in the Midlands.”