Building The Conditions for Northern HealthTech to Scale
Topic : UK Environment Type : Briefing
By Gino Miele, CEO, genedrive
The British Business Bank’s £150 million scale-up fund for the North, announced alongside the Northern 500 this month is welcome news and an opportunity to address a long-standing challenge in our industry. Many of us recognise the UK produces excellent medical technology but is far less consistent at turning that innovation into companies that stay, grow and create jobs where they started.
Healthtech is an industry particularly demanding test of that. Years of product development, clinical evidence, regulatory approval and manufacturing have to be funded before a diagnostic reaches the market. For smaller companies in particular, sustaining that journey can be difficult. So a fund built around scale-up capital in the regions where these businesses begin is a welcome response to that challenge.
Manchester is proof of what the model can produce
Greater Manchester shows what a strong regional health innovation ecosystem can achieve. The city-region brings together the NHS, the University of Manchester, civic leadership and home-grown life sciences companies, creating an environment where innovation can move from research into real-world patient care.
At genedrive, we have benefited directly from that environment. Our rapid pharmacogenetic tests, which support treatment decisions in stroke care and help identify newborns at risk of antibiotic-induced hearing loss, have been developed through close collaboration with clinicians and researchers at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester, alongside other partners across the region.
That proximity means technologies can be developed around real NHS clinical pathways and the practical needs of clinicians and patients. We have seen for ourselves how, over time, those relationships build expertise, skills and stronger connections between research, healthcare and industry.
Capital alone won't get us there
But access to capital only solves half of the problem. The other half is securing a customer pipeline. And on that front, the Government's recent commitment to use public procurement more deliberately, with the state acting as an early customer for British technology, matters to HealthTech just as much as the scale-up fund.
Even where technologies have generated strong evidence and received national recommendations, moving into routine NHS use can take time. Rigorous evaluation is essential, but companies also need clear and predictable routes from evidence generation into procurement and adoption.
A clearer route into NHS use can help well-evidenced technologies reach patients while giving UK companies the domestic track record that can support further investment and international growth.
What comes next
The Northern 500 sits alongside the British Business Bank and National Wealth Fund as an opportunity to bring more of the right groups together. That includes growing businesses, regional leadership, investors and organisations that could become customers and partners.
The opportunity is to connect them around the practical challenges businesses face as they move from innovation to scale. This is also where the ABHI plays an important role, bringing the experience of HealthTech businesses into the wider conversation about growth and adoption.
As Jonathan Evans at the ABHI puts it: “Access to growth capital matters, but it needs to be matched by an NHS that is open to working with innovators. If you take Greater Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is a great example of that openness, with a strong track record of working with industry and bringing clinical, research and innovation expertise together. For HealthTech companies, that close collaboration with clinicians is vital, not just at the point of adoption, but throughout product development, helping to ensure technologies are designed around real clinical pathways and the needs of patients and the NHS.”
The North already has strengths across science, clinical expertise and health innovation. For HealthTech, the next step is to match that capital with clearer routes to customers and adoption. Doing both will give more UK companies the chance to scale at home and compete internationally.