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Scotsman
11-06-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Scotland can be an innovation nation again - here's how
PA This is a chance to write a new chapter—not by erasing the past, but by building on it Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scotland has led the world before, and it can lead again. Scotland has more world- class universities per head than innovation powerhouses like Switzerland or Singapore. It's the only part of the UK where high-potential firms are more likely than their London peers to secure early-stage investment. And half of the UK's most active angel investor networks are based here. Thanks to decades of effort by businesses, universities, and public agencies, Scotland may be the best place in the UK to start an innovative firm. Mission accomplished, you might think. Wait a while, and the jobs, industries, and incomes will follow. That's how growth has happened before. As the economist David Autor has shown, the jobs most of us do today didn't even exist in 1940. Out with the miners, in with the solar engineers and wedding planners. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But there's nothing automatic about translating headline innovation into broad-based prosperity. Too many Scottish firms, once they reach a certain scale, find they must either sell or relocate elsewhere in the UK or to the US to grow. Dundee University spin-out Exscientia—a global leader in AI drug discovery—moved to Oxford to become Scotland's first biotech 'unicorn'. The bigger problem is structural. Scotland has one of the most lopsided innovation economies in the world. It ranks second globally for university R&D as a share of GDP, yet sits mid-table on private sector R&D. For every pound of public research spending in Scotland, just £1.46 is matched by private investment—half the UK average, and a third of the OECD rate. It doesn't have to be this way. In a new report, Innovation Nation, published last week by Our Scottish Future, I set out a five-point plan to raise private innovation and ensure Scotland's ideas scale at home. I begin with a call for a single plan, shared between the Scottish Government, UK Government and local leadership. There is no 'silver bullet' for policymakers; success will require the careful coordination of reserved and devolved policy levers, as well as local consent and support. That shared set of priorities is far from Scotland's current reality: a spaghetti junction of competing Scottish and UK institutions, impossible for business to navigate and – taken together – less than the sum of its parts. Dan Turner | Dan Turner But a plan for what? Scotland's most pressing problem is not an absence of talent, infrastructure and access to capital. It's that – with a few notable exceptions – it lacks what economists call 'clusters' of similar businesses, all of whom become more productive because they can draw on a shared pool of expertise, workers, supply chains and specialist infrastructure such as lab space or testing facilities. As well as being good for individual firms, these clusters are good for communities: they give firms a strong reason to stay put and invest, rather than relocate elsewhere. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad My second recommendation is for tax and planning reform, capital spending, and political leadership to create five 'Growth Zones'. These would be small campuses, putting major research facilities, indigenous start-ups, and multinational enterprises side-by-side. Scotland already has the first two; the Scottish and UK governments will have to negotiate the third, while local leaders do the hard work of assembling the land, finding the funders, builders and tenants, and creating new economic hubs. To do that, local leaders will need more power, status and – correspondingly – accountability. Following earlier Our Scottish Future work, I call for Scottish Combined Authorities, based on the successful model of Manchester, to cover Scotland's major urban areas. As well as being responsible for the Growth Zones, these Scottish Combined Authorities should play a lead role in connecting the engines of the innovation economy into wider social and economic life on their patch. If we don't make an intentional effort, overreliance on innovation-led growth can make inequalities worse. And that's not just inequitable: it's inefficient. Researchers at Harvard and MIT have shown that we could raise patenting levels fourfold if we could bring talented youths from communities typically left behind by innovation into the labs and research centres. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And last but not least, any shift in efforts towards building up Scotland's clusters can't come at the cost of stopping – or worse, reversing – support for the universities and early stage investors that currently speaks so much to Scotland's credit. The risk, in Holyrood and Westminster, is that we cut back on innovation funding and cut ourselves off to global talent. Scotland cannot afford to kill its golden goose. The work we do shapes how we see ourselves and the places we live. Scotland's identity is still deeply tied to its industrial heyday—shipbuilding on the Clyde, coal and oil from Fife and Aberdeenshire, medical breakthroughs from Edinburgh. But there is no reason the 21st century can't belong to Scotland too. Indeed, we can see its outline already. Glasgow's former workshops now house Europe's largest satellite cluster and cutting-edge life sciences. Edinburgh's fintech firms are reimagining payment and exchange. Dundee has shifted from jute to gaming and advanced therapeutics. Aberdeen is preparing for its second great energy transition, leading on hydrogen and offshore renewables. This is a chance to write a new chapter—not by erasing the past, but by building on it. Scotland's future industries can honour its industrial legacy: drawing on the same places, the same skills, the same deep pride in work. But to get there, we need to do something new: create jobs in the innovation economy, at every skill level, across the country. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That is the challenge and the opportunity. To remake Scotland's innovative legacy —not as a monument to past glory, but as a home for modern, inclusive, enduring industry. That's what it means to become an innovation nation.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI specialist Recursion trims pipeline in latest shakeup
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. AI drug discovery specialist Recursion Pharmaceuticals is shelving three of its most advanced drug prospects in an effort to cut costs following a merger last year. Alongside its latest quarterly earnings report, the company revealed plans to halt development of drugs for cerebral cavernous malformation and neurofibromatosis type II that were in mid-stage testing. Recursion will also pause testing and attempt to license out a therapy it's been advancing for C. difficile infections. The decisions reflect Recursion's plan to focus on 'areas of high unmet need where we believe we can have the greatest impact,' said Najat Khan, the company's chief R&D officer and chief commercial officer, in a statement. Following a merger with fellow AI biotech Exscientia last year, the company has been 'proactively streamlining' its operations and 'making deliberate tradeoffs' to focus resources on its most impactful programs, Khan added. Four years ago, Recursion raised $436 million in one of the biotech sector's most lucrative initial public offerings. The company secured those funds on the promise of AI, which is seen by proponents as a way to speed up drug discovery and increase its odds of success. And in combining with Exscientia in 2024, Recursion touted a sprawling pipeline that would produce 10 near-term clinical readouts and had the potential to deliver multiple blockbusters. The company hasn't yet fulfilled its promise, though. Early clinical data for its treatment for cerebral cavernous malformation disappointed investors and, according to the company's statement Monday, the 'totality' of the results accrued since then led it to stop testing. The neurofibromatosis type II therapy is being scrapped for similar reasons, while a changing treatment landscape has reduced the need for the C. difficile drug it's been developing. To Mani Foroohar, an analyst with Leerink Partners, the pipeline cuts were 'inevitable' given the company's 'unsustainable cash burn.' The company booked a roughly $464 million net loss in 2024, following a $328 million net loss the year prior. It had $509 million in cash as of the end of March. Foroohar added in a research note Monday that Phase 2 data the company released Sunday in a condition that causes the growth of potentially dangerous polyps were 'hard to interpret.' The findings do 'little to improve confidence in clinical execution, as cash burn and dilution risk are top of mind,' he wrote.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Recursion axes drug programmes to streamline pipeline
AI business Recursion Pharmaceuticals has narrowed its drug development pipeline, ending or pausing five programmes as it seeks to reduce costs and reprioritise resources following a merger with fellow AI biotech Exscientia last year. The company's Q1 2025 earnings report revealed plans to cut three clinical programmes, pause one clinical candidate and cut a preclinical effort. Shares in Recursion fell by 13.4% on 5 May, dropping from $5.49 at market open to $4.76 at close following the pipeline restructuring announcement. The terminated programmes include REC-2282, REC-994, and REC-3964. REC-2282 and REC-994 were in development for rare neurological disorders – neurofibromatosis type 2 and cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM), respectively. According to Recursion, accumulated data from both trials did not justify continued investment. The company formally stated that the 'totality' of the results supported ending development altogether. REC-994 had reached Phase II testing in CCM. Data from the 62-patient trial (NCT05085561) was announced in September 2024, with a follow-up in February 2025. The trial showed comparable safety and tolerability to placebo over 12 months and met its primary endpoint, but did not demonstrate meaningful clinical benefits. MRI scans suggested a trend toward reduced lesion volume at the higher dose of 400mg, but no improvements were observed in patient-reported outcomes or functional assessments. Follow-up data, including a long-term extension phase, failed to confirm earlier signals of efficacy. Recursion is not fully discontinuing its REC-3964 programme – aimed at treating C difficile infection – but is instead exploring potential out-licensing opportunities. The company cited a shift in the treatment landscape and internal reprioritisation as reasons for reconsidering further development. In addition to these terminations, Recursion is pausing development of REC-4539, a clinical-stage oncology candidate. A preclinical programme in an undisclosed indication is also being discontinued. These changes leave Recursion with six active development programmes. Four of which are in oncology while two target rare diseases. None are currently in late-stage trials. 'The data is going to be ultimately what drives what the balance of the portfolio looks like, but I do not see us abandoning either oncology or rare disease in the near term,' said Recursion CEO Chris Gibson in a 5 May earnings call to investors. The pipeline restructuring follows a period of strategic realignment after Recursion's merger with Exscientia. Najat Khan, who serves as both chief R&D officer and chief commercial officer, said the company is making 'deliberate tradeoffs' to focus on areas of high unmet need and the greatest potential impact.
