BioNTech has announced a major expansion of its UK footprint, pledging to invest up to £1 billion over the next ten years. The UK Government will support this growth with a grant of up to £129 million, marking one of the largest such arrangements in the history of the British pharmaceutical sector.
The partnership aims to advance cutting-edge research and development across multiple areas of medicine, including cancer immunotherapies, vaccines, regenerative medicine and infectious disease. This latest agreement builds on BioNTech’s ongoing collaboration with the UK, which has already focused on accelerating clinical trial delivery and bolstering the country’s biopharma sector.
Three strategic pillars of the collaboration
- Oncology pipeline acceleration: Supporting the rapid progression of BioNTech’s innovative cancer therapies into clinical testing.
- Expansion of UK R&D footprint: Establishing new research and development sites, with the first planned in Cambridge.
- Advanced research initiatives: Pursuing breakthroughs in structural biology, regenerative medicine and vaccine innovation.
New UK sites and AI hub
As part of the investment, BioNTech will open two new R&D centres in the UK. The first site is planned for Cambridge, a leading global hub for biomedical science. The company will also establish its new UK headquarters in London, hosting an advanced AI hub via its subsidiary InstaDeep, acquired in 2023. This centre will focus on applying artificial intelligence to accelerate drug discovery and development.
The collaboration is designed to strengthen the UK’s life sciences sector, creating high-skilled jobs and positioning the country as a hub for global biopharma research. BioNTech stated that this long-term investment underscores its commitment to developing transformative therapies and supporting the UK’s research ecosystem.
