Fellow

As Chair of the Vaccine Taskforce from May – December 2020, Kate Bingham held a pivotal role in the UK's efforts to find and manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine, and led the UK to become the first Western country to launch its vaccination programme. Her work on the UK's vaccination programme was internationally lauded, particularly for securing a broad portfolio of seven different vaccines and setting up the infrastructure for clinical trials, manufacturing and distribution. Awarded a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2021 for services to the procurement, manufacture and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, Kate has a remarkable track record of more than 30 years success as a venture capitalist in the life sciences, enabling new companies to develop transformational medicines and bring drugs from discovery to market. Born in London, the oldest of three children, Kate attended St Paul's Girls' School before graduating with a first-class degree in biochemistry from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Harvard University, where she was a Baker and Kennedy Scholar. She worked in business development for Vertex Pharmaceuticals and at strategy consultant firm Monitor Company before joining Schroder Ventures (now SV Health Investors) in 1991. She became a managing partner specialising in biotechnology, serving on the boards of companies in the UK, Europe and the US including Bicycle Therapeutics, named for their specialism in bicyclic peptides, powerful new tools in drug development. Co-leading biotech investing at SV Health Investors, Kate’s biotech investments have resulted in the launch of six drugs for the treatment of patients with inflammatory and autoimmune disease and cancer. In 2015, she played a critical role in setting up the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) and building a new dedicated venture investment team. The DDF is the world’s largest venture capital fund focused on discovering and developing novel disease-modifying therapeutics for all forms of dementia. The breadth of DDF’s investment partners illustrates exactly the sorts of collaborations that Kate is so good at nurturing, with seven major pharmaceutical companies working alongside the Dementia Research Institute and Alzheimer’s Research UK. A member of the board of the Francis Crick Institute and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BioIndustry Association UK in 2017, Kate has not always felt as confident in her many abilities as her CV might suggest. Speaking of her trepidation when offered the role of leading the UK’s effort stop the spread of COVID-19, she said “When I told my daughter I wasn’t sure I could do this, she looked at me and said, ‘Mum! If I’d said that you’d have given me all this lip about ‘don’t be under-confident, you’re just putting yourself down!’ So I was told off by my 22-year-old.” Her caution was understandable, given the complexities of the role she was to undertake, and her plea for more people to come forward as clinical trials of the vaccines began exemplified the challenges her team faced. As she said at the time, “Researchers need data from different communities and different people to improve understanding of the vaccines. The only way to get this is through large clinical trials. We want to ensure the data we get actually represents the different people from different backgrounds in the UK. This includes people who are over 65, frontline healthcare workers, or have existing health conditions, and we need people from the communities which have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds.” In 2021, Kate was invited to deliver the prestigious University of Oxford Romanes Lecture, previously given by many high-profile figures including Hillary Clinton. Here, she detailed obstacles in government and Whitehall that were barriers to the vaccine procurement success, saying “Across government there is a devastating lack of skills and experience in science, industry, commerce and manufacturing – the very skills needed to bring an unproven medicine from the laboratory safely and effectively into people’s arms.” Unafraid to set out her ideals, she added “Currently there are very few with science or operating backgrounds at all levels of government. If you lack scientific knowledge, then you cannot make the right decisions about science and medicine. We need to embed science into policymaking, at every level of government.” Using her lecture to praise outstanding contributions to the vaccine effort, Kate named many of those she had worked with, and stressed the importance of being prepared for the next pandemic, saying “We must act now to build our defences against a future catastrophe. Another war is coming, let’s make sure we have the right people, with the right skills to fight it.” Her book reflecting on the extraordinary journey towards the vaccine, The Long Shot, The Inside Story of the Race to Vaccinate Britain, was written with fellow venture capitalist, journalist and politics lecturer Dr Tim Hames. Published last year, it has been a Sunday Times bestseller and Financial Times book of the year, their reviewer calling it “compelling” adding that it “…may be most valuable as a fresh vision for how to lead in a crisis.” Kate, who was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society earlier this year, has certainly shown an extraordinary talent for such leadership. In January 2023, she was appointed to the Board of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), a new independent body to identify and fund high-risk, high-reward scientific research, at speed. ARIA is a key part of the government’s plans to build a better future with innovation at the heart of growing the economy and improving lives. Kate’s extraordinary professional pursuits are offset by weekends spent at her home in Wales. While her pleasure at growing vegetables might hint at some well-deserved relaxation, she says she is equally happy riding horses, mountain bikes, and competing in bog snorkelling competitions.