Introducing Paddington Life Science Partners
A new life sciences cluster with St Mary’s Hospital at the heart has been launched, bringing communities, the NHS, researchers and industry together for health innovation at scale, economic and social value, local impact and global influence.
The regeneration of Paddington and unrivalled transport links are already drawing pharmaceutical, biotech, data and technology businesses to the area, joining major local landowners with significant life sciences interests. Establishing more structured collaboration with St Mary’s - a major research and teaching hospital serving a large and diverse local community - is now creating a life sciences ecosystem, presenting a range of opportunities to expand and accelerate innovation and to improve health and wellbeing, locally and globally.
Paddington Life Sciences Partners have agreed to work together to improve health and reduce inequalities through four key areas of focus:
- Social value – supporting local communities and tackling inequalities through community engagement, increasing access to education and employment, and improving digital inclusion.
- Diversity and inclusion in clinical trials – working with local communities to co-produce approaches to increasing diversity in clinical trials and to influence clinical research practice, such as by training and supporting community champions.
- Data and digital - using collective data analytics expertise, secure data environments and real-world evidence to improve care.
- Place and space – promoting Paddington as a highly desirable location for life sciences business to start, develop and grow.
Dr Suki Balendra, Director of Strategic Partnerships for Paddington Life Sciences, said: “Paddington Life Sciences is set to be a research and economic powerhouse, driven by collaboration with our brilliant cross-sector partners. It has been inspiring to convene the group in the last year and collaborate on tangible initiatives that will improve health and reduce inequalities. I look forward to realising the potential of what we can do together to achieve our mission: connecting our local communities to a future of better health.”
Dr Bob Klaber, Imperial College Healthcare Director of Strategy, Research and Innovation added: “Research and innovation are fundamental to the clinical excellence our hospitals are renowned for. From the Nobel-prize winning discovery of penicillin at St Mary’s in 1928, to now where, with Imperial College London, we run the largest NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, undertaking hundreds of clinical trials and analysing data from well over a million patient contacts each year. Through the pandemic, many more patients and staff have been encouraged to get involved in research and we are confident this trend will grow. Paddington Life Sciences Partners are working together to improve not just healthcare but also health, wealth and wellbeing, creating synergies that will boost education, skills development and employment opportunities in some of the most deprived areas of the UK.”
The full realisation of Paddington Life Sciences will come with the redevelopment of St Mary’s and regeneration of the wider site. A full rebuild of St Mary's is included in the government's New Hospital Programme. Following the recent announcement that the delivery of some schemes - including St Mary's - would be pushed out beyond the original commitment of 2030, the Trust is accelerating work with the New Hospital Programme and other partners to explore phasing, design and funding options to keep the scheme on track for a 2030 delivery. As well as delivering a new, state-of-the-art hospital, the redevelopment is intended to create an additional 1.5 million square feet of cross-functional commercial and lab space for life sciences businesses.
Paddington Life Sciences continues over 150 years of clinical and scientific achievement here.
- St Mary’s is the site of the Nobel prize-winning discoveries of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928 and the chemical structure of antibodies by Professor Rodney Porter in 1962.
- It’s where robotic surgery and HIV care was pioneered and, more recently, the clinical use of virtual reality technology.
- St Mary’s clinicians led major clinical trials for Covid, including running the influential REACT study helping to identify treatments and test vaccines that have benefitted thousands of people around the world.
Paddington Life Sciences Partners are: British Land, Brockton Everlast, Derwent London, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Imperial College London, IQVIA, Microsoft, Optum, Oracle Health, Takeda, The Paddington Partnership, Vertex and Vodafone. The Associate Partners are: Imperial College Health Partners and Imperial Health Charity.
13.06.23
