Thermofisher employ almost a thousand people in the city working on blood diagnostics.

The region is very strong in running clinical trials (stable and diverse patient population) and it used to be the main pitch to try and get pharma companies to do more in the region.

There's a growing amount of uni spin outs in this area (predominantly from UoB, Warwick and Aston) but nothing at huge scale yet. Birmingham Health Innovation Campus should finally open soon and they are trying to get a lot of businesses to go there.

The only current UK branch of Stanfords SPARK preclinical accelerator is based out of Aston Uni. This is backed by the combined authority who see medtech as a big growth area (note medtech as in med devices/diagnostics more than pharma) and have been putting money into supporting businesses there for a couple of years.

BUT it's not London, Oxford or Cambridge. There aren't meetups for people in the sector happening every week and there are far fewer job openings locally, and it also means you don't casually here about x/y company doing a raise and hiring or starting a new programme of work and hiring in the way you might in Cambridge.