“As new financial initiatives are launched to support life sciences, establishing a skills pipeline remains crucial for the pharmaceutical industry.”


‘A HUGE OPPORTUNITY TO BE GRASPED’ Unveiling the package, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said: “Our life sciences sector employs over 280,000 people, makes £94 billion for the UK each year and produced the world’s first Covid vaccine. These are businesses that are growing our economy while having much wider benefits for our health – and this multi-million- pound investment will help them go even further.” Dr Richard Torbett, chief


executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), described the new initiatives as government recognition of “the huge opportunity waiting to be grasped if the UK can unlock the economic potential of its life science industry”. He added: “Lord O’Shaughnessy


is right that making the UK an attractive destination for industry clinical trials requires regulatory reform, speedier study set-up and approvals, and improved access to data. Implementing his proposals, alongside these other announcements, can be a springboard to delivering on the UK’s ambition to be a science superpower and we now must press forward with delivery at pace.”


28


However, Dr Torbett added that


improving research represented only one part of the equation. “To get innovative medicines to patients and fully capture the growth opportunity, we must also fix the commercial environment, and for that, we also look forward to agreeing with government to a new and improved voluntary scheme as soon as possible.” Michael Young, co-founder


of clinical trials company Lindus Health, described the new funding as “most welcome”. “The UK should be a global life science superpower, discovering cutting- edge treatments that can save lives. But our country’s excellent R&D sector is being held back by an old-fashioned, analogue drug development industry that wouldn’t look out of place in the 1970s. “Poor-quality data and a lack of


investment in trial infrastructure means advances in treatments can take decades to actually reach patients. So, it is also encouraging to see the government respond to the call for better access to medical data.” Mr Young said that to accelerate


health innovation and make a real difference to patients – and to ensure the UK is a global leader and not “lagging behind” – the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98