Life Sciences Start-up Insurance

Insurance for today’s innovators

When you see your ideas come to life, the future is exciting. But with any new business there will be challenges to overcome and risks to manage and mitigate.

What is life sciences start-up insurance?

Our insurance for new life science companies offers comprehensive and specialist coverage at competitive rates. It helps protect companies from a variety of risks unique to the life science industry, such as product contamination and loss of research and development expenditure.

While you may not want to commit a large section of your budget to insurance, a good policy could be the key to a successful business venture. We believe it is one of the most sensible forms of business continuity planning in the early stages of your development. Here at Gallagher, we understand the need to minimise start-up costs, while still securing comprehensive cover from specialist insurers who understand the needs of your business.

Our specialist start-up team

Our team has been handpicked from our wider Life Sciences Practice to focus entirely on start-up and early stage companies. We are here to support you throughout your entire journey, from the fundraising stage to commercialisation.

What types of companies do we work with?

Biotech
TechBio
Devices and diagnostics
eHealth
Pharmaceuticals
CBD and psychedelics
Life sciences service providers

What is our role?

To understand you and your business
Identify the risks that can be transferred to the insurance market
Recommend cover proposals with costings
Negotiate appropriate cover and price with insurers
Negotiate bespoke specialist cover enhancements with insurers
To provide claims support and guidance

Employers’ Liability: This cover is a legal requirement in the UK and helps protect you against claims for injury and illness made by your employees as a result of their work.
Public Liability: Helps protect your businesses if your customers, landlord or members of the public are injured or their property is damaged and your business is found to be liable.

Directors’ & Officers’ Insurance: Helps protect company directors and the wider management team personally from claims which could otherwise extend to their personal assets and estate.
Cyber and Privacy Liability: Cover to help protect the business financially in the event of a cyber-attack, cyber extortion or data breach, including breach response costs and business interruption.
Key Persons Cover: Financial protection to help your company in the event of a founder or senior executive no longer being able to fulfil their duties as a result of critical illness or death.
Professional Indemnity: Public Liability and Directors’ & Officers’ Liability policies generally exclude professional negligence. This is where you provide expertise and advice in a particular field and third parties, who rely on this, suffer a financial loss as a result of an error or omission by you.

Business Travel: Cover for employees who travel overseas for company business. Includes medical and repatriation expenses and cover for baggage, money, personal accident, cancellation costs, legal costs and personal liability.
Assets: Cover for tangible assets such as buildings, contents and equipment, and intangible assets such as intellectual property.
Technology Errors & Omissions: Cover to help protect Medical Device, eHealth, Digital Health and Telemedicine companies from third party bodily injury and/or financial loss claims arising from the use of their proprietary technology or software.
Contractual Liability: Protection against risks that your business assumes when entering into a contract with another party.

These are brief product descriptions only. Please refer to the policy documentation paying particular attention to the terms and conditions, exclusions, warranties, subjectivities, excesses and any endorsements.

Our advisory and support services

Tap into our team’s wealth of specialist insurance and risk management experience.
Contract Reviews:	We can review your contracts from an insurance perspective, helping you navigate the onerous language and requirements that are typical of such documents.
Benchmarking:	Using data analytics, we can help you make important decisions, such as what limits of indemnity to buy, whether premiums are fair or if wider cover is available from alternative providers.
Supply Chain Exposure Due Diligence:	We can help you review your supply chain exposures and to guide you through important decisions regarding your insurable interests.
Business Interruption Calculator:	A proprietary solution to calculate consequential losses following a property damage incident (such as a fire or power outage) at your premises, and advice on appropriate business interruption cover. This is a process that can often be complex for pre-revenue companies.
Risk Management:	Designed with start-up and early stage companies in mind, our online portal aims to help address your risk management requirements by empowering you with the tools you need to protect your organisation, employees, customers and the general public. We can also assist you with business continuity planning and cyber risk management.
Gallagher Business Assist Claims Service:	This is an in-house service designed to assist you with large or complex property related claims. We will support you through every stage of the claims process in order to help you maximise your chances of success.

Frequently asked questions

What other services do you provide for life sciences start-up companies?

In addition to our specialist insurance for life science start-ups, we provide risk management and crisis containment services to help give your company the best chances of success. Our team of specialists have the knowledge and know-how to guide you through every stage of your development, advising on regulatory requirements at both a local and global level.

We will work with you to protect your R&D expenditure and to understand the risks that may prevent you from achieving key milestones. As your business evolves, we will be able to support your expansion – whether you require advice on navigating the international insurance market or help understanding your supply chain or clinical trials exposure. During risk management planning, we may look at licensing agreements, regulatory requirements and intellectual property management, plus much more.

Who do you work with?

We are the partner of choice for over 3,000 companies across the world and have over 25 years’ experience helping life sciences start-ups achieve their goals. Our client base includes medical technology manufacturers, biotech firms, medical supply companies, laboratories and clinical research centres.

Funding rounds - what do I need to consider from an insurance perspective?

A funding round can trigger significant insurance policy changes so it is important that you work with a broker who is familiar with the technical implications of capital raises as you may otherwise find yourself uninsured. Here are some things to keep in mind:

Has your ‘cap table’ changed? If so, you’ll need to declare this to your broker for review.
Have your investors placed an investor-director on your company board? If so, do they have any specific requirements? Investor-directors based in the U.S. may have unique requirements.
Do your investors require key persons insurance cover for any of your senior leaders or founders?
Are your limits of indemnity still adequate following the funding round?

I may want to set up a base overseas - can Gallagher help me?

Yes. We are a global broker and can place business across 130 countries, including the U.S. where we also have a Life Sciences Practice, based in Boston.

What happens if I outgrow a start-up insurance package?

Our specialist insurance providers are used to dealing with the changing requirements of fast-growing companies in your sector, so they offer a lot of flexibility. The key is to always keep us in the loop as an extension of your team so that we can advise you and help you prepare for the next steps.

What should I do if I need to make a claim on my life sciences start-up insurance?

We hope you never need to, but if you do, it’s simple to make a claim on your life sciences start-up insurance. Get in touch with our team and we can get your case in motion. We handle all our claims in-house, which means you’ll have a dedicated Gallagher claims handler. They will work hard to get you the right result.