The UK and Scottish Governments should jointly commit to make Glasgow the global centre of Precision Medicine, one of the world’s fastest growing life science sectors, Gordon Brown has told a major conference today.
In a speech at a joint Our Scottish Future-Glasgow Chambers of Commerce event on the greater Glasgow region, the former Prime Minister said Glasgow had to enter a “new phase of industrialisation” seizing on the new sectors of growth in the global marketplace.
Already a key Europe wide centre on research into precision medicine, Mr Brown told the conference that Rishi Sunak and Nicola Sturgeon should jointly announce the creation of a Precision Medicine Academy in the city, and make Glasgow the centre of a new UK wide Precision Medicine network.
Estimated to become a £100 billion sector in just five years time, precision medicine is an emerging way of disease prevention and management, using tailored approaches for patients based on their genetic makeup.
Glasgow has been already identified by the UK and Scottish Governments as a UK wide centre for PM. The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) is home to the Precision Medicine Innovation Centre, and the Living Laboratory – funded by the UKRI Strength in Places Fund – which aims to translate healthcare innovation into real world clinical settings.
Mr Brown told the conference:
“Glasgow must enter a new phase of industrialisation.”
“Fifty years ago, we’d have talked of the new jobs coming from British Telecom, British Steel and big British conglomerates like ICI and GEC.”
“Twenty-five years ago we were looking to multinationals to invest in Scotland like IBM.”
“Now we have to look to our own innovative strengths and the clusters and hubs of economic activity we can create. Glasgow, once known for shipbuilding in one century can be known for globally for life sciences in the next.”
In his speech, Mr Brown declared:
“Today, I am calling on the UK Government to create a new UK PM network to bring together not just Scottish areas of expertise but also to better connect Scottish expertise to the “golden triangle” of London, Oxford and Cambridge. The reality is that more capital is available in the south-east compared to Scotland; the solution for Scotland is not to compete with the south but to collaborate through joint ventures which bring together researchers and experts from all the key institutions in Glasgow, Imperial, Edinburgh, UCL and Cambridge.”
“In order to promote Glasgow as the key UK PM cluster, the UK Government and Scottish Governments should jointly announce the creation of a new UK Precision Medicine Academy, based on President Obama’s US model, headquartered at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.”
In order to promote Glasgow as the key UK PM cluster, the UK Government and Scottish Governments should jointly announce the creation of a new UK Precision Medicine Academy, based on President Obama's US model, headquartered at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
“This would bring under one roof many of the existing assets at the QEUH and would send a clear signal that the Govan site had been identified as the centre of the UK PM cluster.”
“As a 2019 report into PM concluded, there is , as yet, ‘insufficient promotion of Scotland’s important precision medicine assets’. A clearly branded PM Academy, with the full backing of both the First Minister of Scotland and the Prime Minister of the UK, would make clear the ambition to make Scotland a global PM leader and would provide a clear statement of intent that Glasgow is now the centre for PM development in Scotland and the UK.”
“And to launch this, I am also calling on the UK and Scottish Governments jointly hold an international Precision Medicine summit to establish Glasgow as the PM Growth capital of the UK. This should be co-hosted by the Prime Minister and First Minister”.
Mr Brown was speaking alongside CBI director general Tony Danker, Centre for Cities founder Lord Sainsbury and Glasgow city council leader Susan Aitken at the event, brought together to examine how to grow the greater Glasgow economy.
A report released by Our Scottish Future today argues that Glasgow has huge advantages and says that the city now needs to focus on key sectors capable of the greatest growth, connect up better with other cities and regions across the UK, and hold more power at a local city level in order to progress.
The paper says Glasgow has all the ingredients needed to prosper, including high spending on R+D, world class universities, a high number of graduates, a unique industrial heritage and new ‘anchor’ employers in the financial services sector.
But it warns that those strengths are not feeding through to growth –Glasgow’s productivity is lower than other Scottish cities, and it has low rates of patents and start ups too.
Our Scottish Future is a campaign set up by Gordon Brown in 2019 to make the positive case for a better Scotland in a reformed UK. As part of that campaign, it supports greater devolution to city regions like Glasgow, and a renewed focus on economic clusters.
