An industry reception was held to celebrate the launch of Victoria House, a 300,000 sq ft state-of-the-art life sciences hub in London’s Bloomsbury Square.
The launch event brought together leaders from science, academia and the UK parliament, with entrepreneurs, investors, MPs and policymakers coming together to discuss the future of science and technology in the UK.
Victoria House is the first location in London to combine incubator labs with fully serviced office space in a Grade II listed building, specifically tailored for life sciences.
The facility includes lab-enabled, fully fitted and incubator laboratory space and offices supporting the full life cycle of life sciences companies, as well as multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses, academic research institutions and government agencies.
The building is also home to the BioIndustry Association (BIA), which established its UK headquarters at Victoria House last year.
Steve Bates, CEO of the BIA, said: “Victoria House is at the heart of the UK’s vibrant life science innovation ecosystem. The central location makes for easy connections across the UK, with global pharma, tech bio start-ups, universities and policymakers all within easy distance.”
Residents in the incubator labs on the seventh floor include four early-stage companies – Xterna, AAVantgarde Bio, Curecraft, and Emles Bioventures – spanning research in cancer therapies, therapeutic proteins and next-generation health tech.
Dr Jess Corry, CEO and co-founder of biotech start-up Xterna, one of the first businesses to move into Victoria House’s incubator labs, said: “One of the biggest advantages is access to core facilities. Victoria House offers shared equipment like confocal microscopes and flow cytometers, which would be prohibitively expensive for us to purchase outright. That’s a game-changer for an early-stage company where every penny counts.”
The fourth floor of the building is already home to nine digital health and AI-driven research start-ups including Deep Mirror, Caerulus Genomics, Neurocentrx, M2M Bio and Forcefield Therapeutics, as well as clinical-stage biotech AAVantgarde Bio.