Investing in Life Sciences Innovation in Stevenage

In early November 2024 we visited Stevenage, an affordable and easily accessible town located within the "golden triangle" between the academic centres of London, Cambridge and Oxford. Here we met with representatives from UBS' UK Life Sciences Fund - a fund that we're invested in via Brunel's UK Property portfolio, which invests primarily in UK commercial property. The UBS UK Life Sciences Fund is focused on developing "laboratory-enabled office space, dry lab, wet lab and manufacturing facilities in the UK", providing life sciences businesses with the specialised workspaces required to flourish and develop treatments with the potential to improve length and quality of life.

During our trip we visited two sites in Stevenage, part of the first site we visited has been let to Catapult, which sits within a 30-acre campus style business park that is shared between GSK and the UBS UK Life Sciences Fund. Catapult are a part-government funded organisation which provides research and development facilities, technical expertise and commercial support to innovative businesses in the UK. Catapult centres each have a particular specialisation, from semiconductors and renewable energy to cell and gene therapy. The centre we visited specialised in the latter, with 250+ years of combined experience in "good manufacturing practices (GMP)" in the life sciences space. UBS' plan for the wider site is to create a campus style site for life sciences businesses that encourages collaboration and innovation so that businesses, such as those supported by Catapult, can thrive. UBS have plans for ~14 buildings, including a visitor hub, gyms, childcare facilities, cafes and more lab space. The existing buildings share heating between themselves, and some are equipped with solar panels. The goal is for the site to be net zero in the coming years - something UBS are mindful of in the future development of the site.

Click the images below to enlarge them and take a closer look!

The second site that we visited has been let to Autolus, a company whose focus is creating personalised treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases. They do so by taking patients' blood and programming their T cells to recognise and kill cancer cells. So far, their treatments are indicated to be ~90% successful with little to no side effects. As well as developing groundbreaking treatments for the world, Autolus are also creating local opportunities, with ~30% of the workforce in Stevenage living locally. The building that they're letting from UBS is the first of its kind and was built in only 16 months, which is less than half the amount of time a similar building would typically take to be built. This was achievable thanks to the construction taking advantage of prefabricated modules which were made and tested in Newcastle before being lifted into place in Stevenage. This modular design means that the building is highly adaptable and can be customised as the business's needs change or can be adapted for a new tenant, if need be.

Leases for commercial property are typically a lot longer than residential leases - in the case of Autolus and Catapult, both organisations have leases of ≥20 years. This means that is it important that we have assurance that the businesses being let to are viable. This is especially important when leasing to early-stage businesses with highly specialised needs, such as life sciences businesses, as developing and/or retrofitting a building with clean rooms and laboratories is very expensive. To mitigate this risk, UBS employ a scientific advisory panel who can help assess the viability of any life sciences businesses that UBS are considering letting to and ensure that UBS are on top of the latest developments in the life sciences space.

Conclusion

Our investment through Brunel into UBS's Life Sciences Fund enables us to both benefit from and support the growth of the life sciences sector, supporting UK businesses to achieve their full commercial potential and bring innovative new products to the world.