Unlocking biotech potential: What the US–UK tech partnership means for drug discovery
Yogan A. Patel · Posted on: November 13th 2025 · read
The recent announcement of a US–UK tech partnership, unveiled during President Trump’s state visit, marks a significant step forward in transatlantic collaboration across emerging technologies.
While the agreement spans AI, quantum computing, and data infrastructure, its implications for drug discovery are particularly promising - and our experts at MHA believe the UK biotech sector stands to benefit substantially.
Global tech leaders including NVIDIA and Microsoft have committed billions in investment into the UK, reinforcing its position as a hub for innovation.
Although life sciences were not the central focus, the partnership explicitly recognised the role of AI in accelerating drug development, aligning with the UK’s ambition to become a global leader in this space.
Yogan Patel, Head of Life Sciences at MHA, notes that while the announcement was light on specifics, it included major financial commitments to AI infrastructure.
"The deployment of 120,000 AI-enabled GPUs will significantly enhance the UK’s computing power,” he explains. “This will make it easier for biotech firms to adopt AI technologies and scale their drug discovery capabilities over the medium to long term."
AI is still underutilised in drug discovery, largely due to capacity constraints. The UK government has set a bold target to become the third-largest life sciences market globally by 2035, behind only the US and China. Strategic partnerships like this one are key to achieving that goal.
Joe Spencer, Partner at MHA and specialist in the Cambridge biotech cluster, sees immediate opportunities for firms in the UK’s “golden triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge, and London.
"While the North East is being positioned as a future AI Growth Zone, established ecosystems like Cambridge are likely to attract the lion’s share of early investment,” he says. “This could rapidly accelerate the growth of AI-enabled biotech firms."
The partnership also outlines plans for a joint taskforce on quantum technologies and an exchange programme to advance AI in targeted treatments. Spencer believes that combining US investment and expertise with the UK’s Biobank data and talent pool could transform spinouts into scale-ups at unprecedented speed.
Andrew Thurston, MHA’s customs and indirect tax specialist, adds that the deal underscores the strength of the UK–US relationship.
"Unlike China, the UK is unlikely to face export controls on advanced NVIDIA chips, making it a highly attractive destination for AI-driven biotech investment,” he says. “We expect to see increased cross-border funding and M&A activity between US pharma and UK biotech firms."
However, our experts caution that political support alone won’t be enough. Collaboration between large pharmaceutical companies and smaller biotech firms will be essential. While the government’s new £100m+ Life Sciences Transformational R&D Investment Fund (TRIF) is a welcome development, Patel argues that more inclusive policies are needed to support SMEs - who make up 94% of the sector - and to de-risk larger joint projects.
At MHA, we continue to support biotech clients across the UK and US in navigating this evolving landscape. The US–UK tech partnership offers a promising framework—but its success will depend on how effectively industry stakeholders collaborate to turn ambition into innovation.
