Biotech and pharma is the UK’s oldest high-growth sector, and still one of its largest. The companies in this ranking are developing cancer therapies, gene treatments, antibodies and the tools used to discover them.
And the money involved is substantial. The companies included in this ranking have raised £21.8b across 639 equity rounds.
In this ranking, we’ve used the Beauhurst platform to identify 100 UK-headquartered biotech and pharma companies that meet our methodology, then ranked them by the total equity funding they have raised.
That distinction matters. This is not a list of the UK’s most valuable drug developers. Instead, it provides a snapshot of the businesses that have attracted the most equity investment, from university spinouts through to FTSE-100 incumbents.
UK biotech and pharma companies: sector overview
Biotech and pharma companies research, develop and manufacture medicines. Biotech tends to describe therapies derived from living systems, such as antibodies, cell therapies and gene treatments, while pharma more often describes small-molecule drugs. In practice most companies in this ranking work across both.
The companies analysed for this article broadly fall into three groups.
The first is oncology and immunotherapy. These companies develop treatments that target cancer directly or recruit the immune system to do it.
The second is cell and gene therapy. These companies modify cells or genetic material to treat inherited and degenerative conditions, often in rare disease populations.
The third is AI-enabled drug discovery and research tools. These companies build the models, platforms and instruments that other drug developers use.
On the Beauhurst platform, 101 of the 109 companies analysed are classified as pharmaceuticals businesses. Biotechnology applies to 65 and clinical research to 61, while research tools and reagents covers 25. Companies can operate across more than one classification.
There are 109 companies in this cohort, compared with 46 at the end of 2015. That is growth of 137% over a decade.
But new company formation has slowed sharply. Foundations peaked at 11 in 2018, and only eight companies in this cohort have been incorporated since the start of 2022.
Key findings
The biotech and pharma companies included in the analysis have raised £21.8b across 639 equity rounds.
AstraZeneca tops the ranking with £2.69b, followed by Isomorphic Labs (£2.02b), Autolus (£1.06b), Bicycle Therapeutics (£673m) and Croda (£627m).
Two of those five figures are institutional share placings by listed incumbents rather than venture rounds. AstraZeneca raised £2.69b in 2019 to fund its Daiichi Sankyo cancer collaboration, and Croda raised £627m in 2020 to part-fund its acquisition of Iberchem. Together they account for 15% of the sector total.
Excluding both, the sector has raised £18.5b, and the top five share falls from 32% to a level no other ranking in this series has matched for evenness.
The peak year moves with the same correction. 2019 appears to be the record at £3.43b, but £2.69b of that is the AstraZeneca placing, leaving £740m. On that basis the strongest year is 2024, at £2.69b, with 2026 close behind at £2.60b by 22 September.
This is also the least London-dominated sector we have ranked. London accounts for 35 of the 100 companies named, but the East of England is close behind with 30, and the South East adds 21. No other ranking has had a region come within five companies of London.
That reflects where the science comes from. Cambridge and Oxford supply most of the cohort, and the most active investors are the funds built to commercialise university research: IP Group has backed 32 rounds, Oxford Science Enterprises 27 and Syncona Partners 25.
The sector also produces exits, which most of our rankings do not. Eight companies in the list have exited, including Exscientia, Kymab, Nightstar, MiroBio, Gyroscope Therapeutics and Inivata. One company is recorded as dead and one as a zombie.
