You would be alarmed if a doctor tried to perform a procedure with an unsterilised instrument. Clean tools, hands and wards are a given in modern medicine. But all of this only became a life-saving reality because of Pasteur and Lister’s breakthroughs in germ theory and infection.
Since laying the foundations of modern medicine, advances in science and technology have continued apace. Vaccines – which now prevent between 3.5 and 5 million deaths globally each year – are a brilliant example.
But we can and will go further. Today, new technologies, including mRNA vaccines, are showing huge potential to dial up responses to many fast-changing pathogens, as well as promise in cancer treatment. Breakthroughs in life sciences make a profound difference to our health and wealth. The rapid pace of progress means this sector’s value to the UK is growing further still.
This is why life sciences is one of the eight sectors in the government’s Industrial Strategy, with our Life Sciences Sector Plan being implemented alongside the 10 Year Health Plan. We are on a decade-long mission to make sure the next great health breakthroughs happen, and are commercialised, in the UK, leading to more jobs, more growth, and more lives saved.
Building deep and lasting partnerships with industry is a critical part of this. Our strategic partnership with Moderna1 stands alongside other relationships with leading firms, like BioNTech working on mRNA vaccines and treatments for cancer; and Lilly, developing new ways to support patients living with obesity.2 Working with industry creates positive change that lasts –such as through government and businesses collaborating to invest in our R&D base, or by maximising the links between industry and the NHS so that health innovations can benefit patients sooner.
As a research nation, we continue to punch above our weight – underpinned by world-leading expertise, world-class institutions, and long-term investment, including the government’s record £22.8bn commitment to R&D. And, by streamlining and accelerating clinical trials through the UK Clinical Research Delivery Programme, ensuring that work happens here, delivering medical advances to patients.
Through its novel approach to community recruitment, Moderna became one of the UK’s largest industry sponsors of clinical trials in 2024.3 The partnership also helps to boost our resilience to future pandemics, with Moderna’s new facility able to produce up to 250 million vaccines a year if needed.4 We want such relationships to add up to more clinical trials happening in the UK, more investment in research, more training of PhD students, and more highly-skilled jobs created – supporting the development of innovative medicines, and improved patient outcomes.
A new RNA Biofoundry will help innovators get their ideas out of the lab and into use, simplifying and speeding up the process of making mRNA. An £85m innovation programme we’re funding, together with Lilly,5 will test new ways to support patients living with obesity – something that costs the health service £11bn a year.6 And work continues in establishing our world-first Health Data Research Service, harnessing the NHS as an engine for data-driven innovation. This is a chance for all of us to contribute, to have our health data used to improve the outlook for everyone now and for the next generation – the sort of founding principle of common good on which the NHS was created.
Through such work – and partnerships supporting it – life sciences in the UK will continue to be a success story. While not every breakthrough will be as game-changing as those of Pasteur and Lister, each has the potential to enhance our economy and public health – causes everyone can get behind.
This article first appeared in The UK’s mRNA opportunity: Growth, resilience, leadership, a New Statesman report, funded by Moderna. Participants were not paid for their involvement, all views and opinions are their own and have not been influenced by Moderna.
- Gov.uk, UK cements 10-year-partnership with Moderna in major boost for vaccines and research, December 2022, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-cements-10-year-partnership-with-moderna-in-major-boost-for-vaccines-and-research ↩︎
- NHS England, NHS to fast-track patients with head and neck cancer into cancer vaccine trial, August 2025, available at https://www.england.nhs.uk/2025/08/nhs-to-fast-track-patients-with-head-and-neck-cancer-into-cancer-vaccine-trial/ ↩︎
- FirstWord Pharma, Moderna was the Largest Industry Sponsor of Clinical Trials in the UK in 2023/24 as Construction on Moderna Innovation and Technology Centre in Oxfordshire Nears Completion, February 2025, available at https://firstwordpharma.com/story/5932071 ↩︎
- Modernatx.com, Building Resilience in the UK: Localised mRNA Manufacturing for Enhanced Pandemic Preparedness, September 2024, available at https://www.modernatx.com/en-GB/media-center/all-media/blogs/uk-moderna-localised-mrna-manufacturing ↩︎
- Gov.uk, New help for patients battling obesity through pharmacies and community access, August 2025, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-help-for-patients-battling-obesity-through-pharmacies-and-community-access ↩︎
- Gov.uk, Healthy food revolution to tackle obesity epidemic, June 2025, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/healthy-food-revolution-to-tackle-obesity-epidemic ↩︎
Date of preparation: October 2025
Material number: UK-MRNA-2500106
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