The Support Effect

Why integrated communications matters for healthcare and life sciences 

‍The UK health and life sciences ecosystem is world-leading in the discovery and early-stage development of science and technologies. But we are not reaching our full potential when it comes to turning that strength into growth.  

There are clear challenges. UK companies face intense global competition for scale-up capital, while innovations can face lengthy adoption and regulatory pathways. Successive governments have identified the life sciences sector as an important driver of economic growth, but the sector is having to compete for attention and investment with other strategic priorities, from defence to technology.  

The critical question is what happens when science and innovation need to translate into action. Who is prepared to invest? Who is prepared to partner? Who is prepared to adopt? Who is prepared to create the conditions for a company or technology to grow?  

Since we launched 5654 Health & Life Sciences in 2024, we have been passionate advocates for the sector. We wanted to better understand the gap between the support life sciences enjoys in principle and the active support it can secure in practice. To explore this, we commissioned polling that informed the 5654 Support Index.  

The findings show that the life sciences sector attracts the strongest levels of positive sentiment. But when people are asked whether they would take action, that support becomes much less pronounced. The gap between being supportive and being prepared to act is important.  

Our latest report, The Support Effect: From Support to Action, published this week explores why that gap exists and what it means for healthcare and life sciences companies.  

Companies do not grow in isolation. They grow when the stakeholders who influence their success understand the opportunity, believe in the proposition and are prepared to act in support of it.  

Strong innovation alone does not automatically translate into adoption, scale or influence. Investors, industry and government may have different priorities, but each needs to understand the story, the value being created and the role they can play in helping the business move forward.  

That means communications cannot operate in silos. It needs to connect investors, industry and government around a coherent story, while giving each audience the evidence, relevance and confidence it needs to act.  

That is how support becomes action.

5654 Health & Life Sciences Team