Scotland’s life sciences sector on track to exceed £8 billion target by 2025
25 Feb 2020
New figures published today by the Scottish Government show company employment in Scotland’s life sciences sector increased by 20% over seven years (2.6% year-on-year), with turnover growing by 90% to reach £6.5 billion in 2017.
From 2010 to 2017, company turnover increased by 90% and gross value added (GVA) by 48%. This represents a year-on-year growth of 9.6% for company turnover and 5.7% for GVA, leaving the sector likely to exceed its strategic target of £8 billion by 2025.?
The sector employs 41,000 people across more than 770 organisations, including some 670 companies. The number of life science companies in Scotland has increased by 19% during those seven years, representing a year-on-year growth of 2.5% between 2010 and 2017.
Scotland’s minister for trade, investment and innovation Ivan McKee said: “Scotland has a strong life science community which, as these figures show, continues to grow and prosper."
He added that the announcement of up to £9.5 million to the Precision Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre would bolster Scotland’s reputation for world-class research and development.
Dave Tudor, co-chair Life Sciences Scotland Industry Leadership Group (ILG), said of the sector’s strong turnover figures:
“They confirm the sustained high growth of the life sciences sector since 2010, and if this growth is maintained, we can be confident of exceeding our target for reaching £8 billion by 2025.
“There are several emerging sub-sectors, including digital health and care, and aquaculture, animal health and agritech, which are all contributing to this powerful rate of growth. We also know there is huge commercial ambition, particularly among the small to medium enterprises, that is a key driver for this accelerated growth rate."
