The core Biopharma sector includes all businesses involved in developing and/or producing their own pharmaceutical products - from small, R&D focused biotechs to multinational Big Pharma.

Within the core Biopharma sector, the county has significant capability at GSK’s R&D Hub in Stevenage and at its respiratory manufacturing plant at Ware. Roche UK has a significant presence in Welwyn Garden City near to Eisai’s EMEA Knowledge Centre in nearby Hatfield. Most of this activity takes place within a 20-mile radius of Stevenage within the A1(M) transport corridor.

Sources: ONS and Office for Lifescience Database 2019

The Biopharma Service and Supply Chain comprises businesses that offer goods and services to Core Biopharma businesses including, for example, Contract Research and Manufacturing Organisations (CRMOs), and suppliers of consumables and reagents for R&D facilities. Significant among these is global CRMO, Pharmaron, based at Hoddesdon.

Data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that there are 135 companies in the Biopharma cluster, with 9 appearing in the top 25 Pharma in the UK. 3,100 people are employed within the sector and its associated service and supply chain.

Sources: ONS and Office for Lifescience Database 2019

The Core Med Tech sector includes all companies whose primary business involves developing and producing Med Tech products, ranging from single-use consumables to complex hospital equipment, including Digital Health products.

More widely dispersed than the Core Biopharma sector, Hertfordshire is home to an array of Med Tech companies including Smith & Nephew (UK), Sartorius Stedim, Galvani Bioelectronic, Medtronic and Boston Scientific.

Med Tech service and supply businesses offer services to Core Med Tech firms including, for example, CRMOs, and suppliers of consumables and reagents for R&D facilities. The sector includes businesses involved in making and/or supplying Digital Health products for both hospitals and consumers including products such as hospital information systems and mobile medical devices and apps. Key businesses include Bio-Rad Laboratories, Iqvia Biotech (formerly Novella Clinical) and Tessella.

Official data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that there are 110 companies in the Med Tech and associated supply chain with 4 appearing in the top 30 Med Tech companies in the UK. Approximately 1,250 people are employed within the sector and its associated service and supply chain.

Source: ONS

The role of ‘big pharma’ has been critical in the growth of life sciences in Hertfordshire. Major corporations like GSK, Roche, Eisai and Merck, Sharpe and Dohme (MSD) established manufacturing and R&D facilities in the area. MSD has since relocated to London, only to be replaced by global contract R&D company, Pharmaron.

Against a backdrop of an impending ‘patent cliff’ and the more general credit crunch, GSK began the development of an open innovation research campus adjacent to its medicines research centre in Stevenage. Signalling a major departure from standard science park models, the intention was that the campus should be developed in stages, creating an ecosystem in which companies could collaborate and share facilities and advice, access finance and enable early-stage companies to scale through the commercialisation of ideas.

Completed in 2012, the Open Innovation campus operated by Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC - a GSK/ Wellcome Trust joint venture), has evolved into the UK’s largest cell and gene therapy cluster, and the third largest globally. Instrumental in this evolutionary journey was a decision by the Cell Therapy Catapult to establish its Manufacturing Innovation Centre on the SBC campus.

Since 2017, the companies within the campus have attracted private equity investment in excess of £739m. By 2020, private equity investment in R&D activities linked to biotechnology was higher in Stevenage than for the clusters in Cambridge and London, and very close to the figure for Oxford. The government’s Life Sciences Vision confirmed that “the UK has a very strong cluster of Advanced Therapy companies forming in Stevenage around the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult."

By 2022, it was estimated that the cell and gene therapy campus in Stevenage – including both the Catalyst and Catapult – was delivering over 3,000 jobs and was home to over 45 companies, 13 of which are were the cell and gene therapy space. Kadans Science Partner also established additional life sciences collaborative research space in the development of a 70,000 sq. ft. facility at Sycamore House opposite the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst campus.

In August 2023, the developer Reef and UBS Asset Management secured planning approval to deliver a new £900m life sciences campus set to provide circa 1.6m sq. ft. of laboratory and office facilities and support up to 5,000 new jobs. Construction of the new campus began in late 2023 with phase one of the build completed in late 2025.

In July 2026, GSK announced plans to close its Stevenage campus by 2029. Around 1,000 employees are expected to relocate to a new R&D facility on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, while others will move to GSK’s existing R&D laboratories in Ware. The Ware site is set to be upgraded to create an integrated centre for drug development and commercial manufacturing within Hertfordshire. A taskforce was established to explore future opportunities for the Stevenage site and help mitigate the economic and employment risks.