Structure:
Trends And Prospects Of The Longevity Industry In The Greater Manchester Area
Aging Population Is One of the UK’s Four Grand Challenges in the Government’s Industrial Strategy
Highlighted as one of the UK's four grand challenges in the government's Industrial Strategy (alongside clean growth, AI and data, and the future of mobility), aging populations worldwide are striving for new technologies, products, and services; and the English urban region of Greater Manchester is in a prime position to respond to this global challenge.
Manchester is already recognized as the UK’s first Age Friendly municipality by the World Health Organization, and in March 2021 MIDAS (the Manchester Investment Development Agency Service), the Greater Manchester Combined Authority inward investment agency appointed Aging Analytics Agency to document the assets which could be developed to make Manchester a true Longevity valley. These range from BioTech R&D sites to AgeTech firms to senior residential development companies.
Aging Analytics Agency was uniquely positioned to provide MIDAS with a strategy to secure significant amounts of new investment for Greater Manchester to create and safeguard jobs and key stakeholders within the area.
With this purpose in mind, Aging Analytics Agency provided a detailed analysis of Greater Manchester's Longevity industry landscape, including the identification of companies, investors, R&D hubs, academic institutions and industry professionals operating within this field.
Aging Analytics has since expanded its focus to cover all UK municipalites and regions, and delivered it in the form of this continuously updated UK Longevity Governance Big Data Analytics Dashboard.
Manchester has recently been recognized as a High Potential Opportunity investment location for “health innovation in healthy aging” by the Department for International Trade, and this work by Aging Analytics Agency will further enhance the city’s capacity for healthy aging – a key focus of the city region's Local Industrial Strategy.
A hallmark of Aging Analytics Agency’s approach is its ability to produce an interactive industry landscape mind map and IT-Platform to visually showcase, classify and profile thousands of Longevity industry companies and investors active within a particular region.
The appointment of Aging Analytics Agency coincides with the establishment of Greater Manchester's Innovation Partnership in Healthy Ageing (IPHA) – a joint Greater Manchester and UK government initiative which builds on Greater Manchester's globally recognized age-friendly credentials, the existing framework created by Greater Manchester's Ageing Hub, the Health and Social Care Partnership and the business support programs delivered by Health Innovation Manchester, MIDAS and the Growth Company. The aims of the IPHA include the development and operation of an innovation pipeline of healthy aging products and services, the establishment of a flow of inward investment opportunities, and a program of events intended to amplify the region's reputation as a global leader in healthy aging.
Richard Deed, Associate Commercial Director for Health Innovation Manchester, commented: "Having a better understanding of the wider Longevity industry in Greater Manchester will allow us to build a much stronger partnership of local, national and global leaders from policy, business, and academia, to address health inequalities across our aging population and deliver on our local industrial strategy objectives."
Tim Newns, the CEO of MIDAS, said: "With a growing population, Greater Manchester has put healthy aging at the heart of its Local Industrial Strategy and is creating a city region testbed to trial close-to-market goods and services for older people. I have every confidence that the work undertaken by Aging Analytics Agency will further widen and cement our proposition as an international leader in this field and showcase Greater Manchester as the ideal environment to take advantage of this ever-growing market.”
And as I said at the time: “As Longevity continues to be embraced by progressive governments as a major component of their national strategic agendas, we are also seeing an increasing need for local, municipal action on this front as well. There are already a handful of proactive municipalities active in this regard, and Manchester is one of them, with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority having made Healthy Ageing one of the major components of its Local Industrial Strategy in 2019. We are delighted to partner with them to help the GMA establish itself as a leading Longevity-progressive municipality in the UK."
Initiated in 2003, Age-Friendly Manchester builds on the Valuing Older People program, whose primary emphasis is on improving the quality of Manchester's senior citizens ' lives. 2009 saw the launch of the strategy “Manchester: A Great Place to Grow Older” (2010–2020). The program's main aim was to make senior citizens economically, physically, and socially active and establish conditions in which they can be healthy, safe, informed, influential, independent, and respected.
In 2010, Manchester became the first UK city recognized by the World Health Organization as an age-friendly city. AFM bases its work around the city's aging strategy, “Manchester: A Great Place To Grow Older,” launched in 2009. The strategy was updated and relaunched in 2017. Furthermore, in the same year, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BIES) made an explicit commitment to recognizing the “Ageing Society” as one of the four Grand Challenges of the nation's Industrial Strategy. They identified an aging society as one of four “grand challenges” that would need to be addressed to ensure that the UK takes advantage of significant global changes to improve British productivity and quality of life.
Manchester is also the only municipality to release its own Local Healthy Ageing Industrial Strategy to complement the UK's national one. More information can be read here:
www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/2132/gm-local-industrial-strategy-web.pdf
Manchester As An Age-Friendly City
This figure depicts the historical timeline of Manchester as an age-friendly city.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
This figure depicts the Manchester age-friendly city strategy priorities.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
This figure depicts the Manchester age-friendly city strategy priorities.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
Manchester is the United Kingdom’s second-largest metropolitan area and is the economic center of the North West England region. Unlike many similar-sized UK cities, Manchester has a growing younger population, which is boosted by the city’s large student population and its appeal to younger professionals as a place to live and work.
This has resulted in the city having a relatively small older population that is more isolated and experiences higher levels of inequality. In 2016, people aged 65 and over accounted for 9.29% of Manchester’s population. Their number is expected to grow to 12.5% by 2041.
This figure shows that the share of older adults in Greater Manchester is lower than the England and Wales average.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
From this figure we can see Greater Manchester’s population will continue to grow if current trends continue.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
Social and economic circumstances have had a significant impact on how people experience old age and on levels of inequality. 36% of Manchester’s older residents are income deprived, while 59% of older people live in the most deprived neighborhoods.
In 2021, Aging Analytics Agency documented 236 Longevity-related companies, 108 investors, 35 R&D centres, and 25 hubs and accelerators. The above interactive mindmap keeps track of these totals.
In Aging Analytics Agency’s 2021 analysis, the Longevity Industry in Greater Manchester was represented by:
-
236 companies with a total funding amount of £4 billion;
-
108 investors that have made more than 100 investments;
-
35 R&D centers; 25 hubs and accelerators; and
-
475 non-profit organizations.
All companies are split into 16 distinct industry subsectors, including AgeTech, P4 Medicine, Diagnostics, FinTech, InsurTech, and AI for Longevity. Note: the investors in this report are divided into two subgroups – Longevity investors invested in Longevity companies and potential investors in Longevity companies.
Major Longevity Subsectors
by Funding Amount, £B
FinTech, age-friendly Banks, and AI for Longevity are the largest sub-sectors of Greater Manchester's Longevity industry by total funding amount and the number of companies.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
Location of Longevity Investors, %
Major Longevity-focused investors in Greater Manchester are located in the United Kingdom (57 entities, 75%). These predominantly include companies with headquarters in London (30 entities).
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
Longevity R&D Centres
by Research Area, Total Amount
There are 35 R&D centers and groups focused on Longevity discovery and development. The main research fields are social care for elderly adults and digital healthcare, mental health (especially dementia), biomarkers and diagnostics, and aging.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
Hubs & Accelerators
by Company Type, %
Leading Longevity Companies
in Greater Manchester
Leading Financial Companies Advancing
the Longevity Industry in Greater Manchester
It was found that in 2021 there were 25 Longevity Hubs and Accelerators in the Greater Manchester area. As the graph shows, these are almost equally divided between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, but for-profit companies constitute the majority (52%).
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
Non-profit Organisations
by Category, Total Amount
Non-profit Organisations
by Category, %
Aging Analytics’ 2021 study found there were 475 Longevity not-for-profit and charity organizations in the Greater Manchester area. The majority are in the Nursing Services (49%) and Elderly Care (33%) categories. Organizations that provide and organize different social activities for older adults also contribute to Manchester's age-friendly services. These organisations make up 16% of the total. The remaining 3% is made up of other categories, including Housing and Social Care.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
This figure depicts the number of companies by the Longevity subsector according to Aging Analytics’ Agency's 2021 study. FinTech, P4 Medicine, and InsurTech make up the majority of these companies.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
The Leading Longevity Companies And Investors In Greater Manchester
The Greater Manchester region contains a significant number of Longevity-oriented companies, R&D hubs, and investors. The analytics above provided by The Aging Analytics Agency will inform readers about the background of this region in terms of Longevity.
This figure depicts the Leading Longevity companies in Greater Manchester.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
The key things to note from the above figure:
-
Cera Care is a large company providing care services in Manchester.
-
Push Doctor, a digital health provider, is one of the most evolved Manchester-based companies.
-
The largest sector is Diagnostics.
-
All companies have a high social impact and provide age-friendly services.
This figure depicts the leading financial companies advancing the Longevity Industry in Greater Manchester.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
Key insights from the figure above:
-
There is a highly-developed age-friendly financial industry in Greater Manchester, including FinTech, InsurTech companies, and Age-friendly Banks.
-
All companies have a high social impact and provide age-friendly services.
-
Increasing the Longevity focus of FinTech companies would be an area of improvement.
This figure depicts the leading Longevity Investors in Greater Manchester.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
The key things to learn from the figure above:
-
All investors start investing in companies from the early stages of their development.
-
Foresight Group has an immense value of funds – £6.8bn GBP.
-
GM&C Life Sciences Fund invested in the largest number of Longevity companies – 11.
This figure depicts R&D Centers and Hubs in Greater Manchester.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
Leading Longevity Investors Connections
This interactive graph depicts relationships between leading longevity investors and companies they invested in to illustrate how irreducibly complex the longevity industry is at its current stage of development. Leading investors have been selected after the assessment of 76 investors by the value of funds, the total amount of investments and the number of investments in longevity-focused companies.
Main R&D Longevity Hubs in Greater Manchester
There are four central areas where R&D centers and hubs are concentrated in Greater Manchester. The largest R&D center is situated in Manchester. The University of Salford’s R&D centers in Bolton and Stockport also contribute to the Longevity R&D process. In addition, 23 Hubs and Accelerators are located in the Manchester area, while two further Hubs have other locations. The following is a brief summary of the biggest Longevity hubs in the Manchester area:
-
University of Manchester: a public research university established after a merger between the Institute of Science and Technology and the Victoria University of Manchester. It conducts a wide range of high-quality research drawing on expertise across various disciplines.
-
Manchester Metropolitan University: a public research university, established in 1992, with multidisciplinary experience in different fields.
-
Health Innovation Manchester: an academic health science center, established in October 2017, whose primary goal is to drive innovation in healthcare in Greater Manchester.
-
University of Salford: a public university located in Salford (a city in Greater Manchester) specializing in several fields, including Life Sciences, Computer Sciences, Arts and Media, and the Business School. The Biomedical Research Centre, the Centre for Health Science Research, and the Centre for Social and Health Research (CSHR) are the largest Longevity research centers at the University.
-
University of Bolton: a public university established in 1824. First known as the Bolton Mechanics Institute, it was renamed the University of Bolton in 2004. Its Faculty of Health and Wellbeing specializes in longevity research.
-
Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine: a multidisciplinary clinical genetics unit whose goal is to personalize diagnosis, understand the effect of gene changes, predict response to drugs, and provide patients with new treatment opportunities.
This figure shows the largest Longevity R&D centres in Greater Manchester.
Source: Aging Analytics Agency, Longevity in Manchester Overview
Comprising nine research groups, the largest Longevity R&D center operates at the University of Manchester. The Metropolitan University and the University of Salford also contribute to Longevity R&D.
Trends and Prospects of the Longevity Industry in the Greater Manchester Area
Growing interest in the Longevity Industry. Currently, the size of the global market is estimated at $34 trillion USD. The major players include national healthcare companies and Longevity-focused financial companies. Longevity-focused biomedicine companies with a smaller market share have been the main focus of Longevity venture investors.
Age-friendly services. Age-friendly and age-inclusive services are the dominating trends among key market players. As a result, companies adapt their structures and services to be accessible and inclusive for older people with varying needs and capacities.
R&D Centers. Research and development centers focus on treating neurological disorders (especially dementia), diagnostics, and biomarkers discovery. In contrast to the companies on the list, R&D centers specialize in research into aging (in the geroscience field).
AgeTech, P4 Medicine, and Diagnostics. The largest sectors in Greater Manchester's Longevity industry are P4 Medicine, AgeTech, and Diagnostics. Diagnostics services are characterized by a large total number of companies and their business development. There is a general tendency toward large funding companies that use AI in their engagement.
FinTech and Age Inclusivity. FinTech companies are constantly augmenting the number of age-friendly initiatives. Age inclusivity becomes the primary trend, embedded into savings, investment products, and payment and identification solutions.
Investors. Having concentrated assets in the UK, most investors primarily invest in startups or early-stage companies specializing in the Health Care, Biotechnology, and Pharmaceutical industries.
In conclusion, municipalities may be ideally suited to lead the charge in this regard due to their smaller size and lower logistical or execution barriers. But they need to use maximally modern and sophisticated analytics for strategy formulation and execution tracking, review, and adjustment.
It is quite notable that, in addition to the UK central government’s Healthy Ageing Industrial Strategy, municipal hubs are now independently making the Healthy Longevity of their citizens a political priority. While Manchester is the first, we are sure that others will soon follow. And it is possible that such local hubs may even make more progress on this front than the central government by tapping into expert resources to profile and benchmark their local assets and refine their local strategies.
Conclusions
-
Aging Analytics Agency is the critical specialist company favored by Manchester’s inward investment agency MIDAS, providing it with data regarding the region's strengths in terms of Longevity, hubs, and investors.
-
With the proper governance, Manchester is a region with the potential to become the world’s first Longevity Valley as it has more Longevity investors, R&D hubs, and Longevity-oriented companies than any other UK region.
-
FinTech, P4 Medicine, and InvestTech are the most prominent sub-industries of the Longevity industry represented by Greater Manchester’s companies, funds, and hubs. The most underrepresented sub-industries are FemTech, Geroscience, and Social Care.
-
If current trends continue, interest in the Longevity industry in Manchester will rise, and the industries currently underrepresented will gain more attention and funding.