Liverpool City Region has a new Health and Life Sciences Board to set out the future development and direction of Health and Life Science economic development across the City Region, managed by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) on behalf of the City Region.

The Board, chaired by Dr Peter Timmins, previously an Executive Director of Bristol-Myers Squibb, will drive forward economic growth across the sector; including supporting the growth of regional companies (in particular SMEs), attracting inward investment and skills development.

The Health and Life Sciences sector is of critical importance for the Liverpool City Region and forms one of the key growth sectors as identified in the City Region’s Growth Strategy as central to driving sustained growth of the economy over the coming decades.

The appointment of Peter Timmins as Chair comes as the newly established Board will develop the Health and Life Science elements of a Growth Strategy Action Plan focused on an ambitious portfolio of activity to accelerate the development and competitiveness of Liverpool City Region’s economy.

This will be based on the City Region’s distinctive assets, including one of the largest biomanufacturing clusters in the world; Sci-Tech Daresbury; the Liverpool Knowledge Quarter (including company incubators and world leading centres of excellence such as the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and Royal Liverpool Hospital); eHealth cluster and the redeveloped Alder Hey Hospital.

Peter Timmins, Chair of Health and Life Science Board, said:

“The importance of this sector to the future prosperity of Liverpool City Region cannot be underestimated. It currently contributes approximately £5 billion into the local economy and provides jobs for approximately 20% of the City Region workforce. By establishing the Health and Life Science Board, we will provide real support to enhance the global competitiveness of our health and life sciences sector.

“I am pleased to take the lead in developing a first class Health and Life Science sector for the Liverpool City Region. We have a great foundation to build on and I am excited to be able to help take this important sector forward.”

Asif Hamid, Interim Chair of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, said:

“The future for health and life sciences in the Liverpool City Region is looking very bright indeed. The establishment of a Health and Life Science Board emphasises just how important this sector is to our local economy and the positive impact it is making on jobs and income for the region, and I welcome the fact that our private sector companies and public sector partners are working together to provide leadership and direction in this economically important sector.”