Life Sciences in 2019
With a wave of political change across the UK, technological advancements, and new innovations, 2019 is an exciting time for UK Life Sciences. Tom Way, European Life Sciences Director at Real Staffing, explains some of the potential developments to the industry in the next year.
How did 2018 perform
With the enforcement of GDPR partnered with the preparation of Brexit, in a lot of ways 2018 has been a year of opportunity rather than restrictions for the Life Sciences industry. 2018 has already seen a rise in Biologics, and we can expect this to continue; by 2020 it’s predicted Biologics will make up a quarter of the pharmaceutical market. 2018 has already proven to be that start of the next industrialization within life sciences. With artificial intelligence already being adapted within parts of the industry, 2019 proves to be a year of growth for the use of new technology, to develop the future of healthcare.
Potential political changes
March 2019 will see the United Kingdom official leave the European Union. Naturally, within Life Sciences, there’s a lot of speculation around the impact this will have on the industry. However, the UK government has secured commitments from 25 organisations to keep the UK as a pharma hub, despite the EMA’s move to Amsterdam. With the uncertainty of what the effects may be for the UK after March, it’s expected that there will be investments in innovation from the UK to secure the country as a leader of the industry. This same innovation could be used to improve the economic growth, as well as benefiting the NHS. 2019 is proving to be an exciting time for new opportunities due to such big political changes to the industry.
Technological advancements
We’ve seen a surge of growth within the Digital Health industry, and there’s no signs of this activity slowing down. At Real Staffing, we pride ourselves on being one of the leading recruitment companies within Digital Health, and this support is to match the demand of Digital Health professionals within the industry. As an industry experiencing a large amount of innovation, we’ve seen Digital Health become a part of everyday life through apps on mobile phones, as well as smart ways to support patient healthcare. Due to the almost limitless avenues of solutions within Digital Health, we expect to see the growth of the industry increase through 2019 as products become more ingrained in everyday life.
In 2019, we can expect to see the use of AI increasing within life sciences. With the possibilities of virtual clinical trials, as well as artificial intelligence speeding up the development process of molecules and compounds for new products. Artificial Intelligence could become a major factor in speeding up typically long processes in drug development. Tom Way explains the positive outlook of 2019, ‘with the evolving industrialisation of life sciences, companies need to embrace the exponential changes in technology to change the way they work, conduct research, innovate, manufacture and distribute products to meet customer expectations. The UK is leading the way in a lot of this and the outlook for the life sciences sector in the UK is hugely exciting regardless of what challenges we face regarding the ‘B’ word!’
If you’re looking for a new career within Life Sciences in 2019, have a look at some of our current vacancies here.
