The authorities has appointed Lord James O’Shaughnessy, Senior Partner at consultancy agency Newmarket Strategy, Board Member of Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), and former Health Minister, to conduct an unbiased assessment into the UK business scientific trials panorama.
The assessment will supply suggestions on how business scientific trials will help the life sciences sector unlock UK development and funding alternatives. This may also advise on methods to resolve key challenges in conducting business scientific trials within the UK.
George Freeman, Minister for State on the new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, mentioned:
Commercial scientific trials are completely important to each our UK life sciences sector and widening NHS affected person entry to progressive medicines all throughout the UK.
The UK has historically been a robust international location for trials, as demonstrated most lately by way of the ground-breaking Covid Recovery trial which was arrange in report time and was the world’s largest randomized managed trial for COVID-19.
However, our life sciences sector has reported a 44% fall in recruitment of sufferers to business scientific trials between 2017 and 2021 – so it’s vital that we act to rebuild competitiveness.
That is why I’m delighted that Lord O’Shaughnessy will lead this unbiased assessment to determine the important thing steps we have to take.”
Health Minister, Will Quince, mentioned:
We’re harnessing the identical spirit of innovation that delivered the COVID-19 vaccine and dealing hand in hand with the NHS, business and healthcare consultants to get cutting-edge medicines to sufferers sooner.
This assessment will assist us to search out new methods to conduct business scientific trials that can pace up prognosis, improve therapy and allow the NHS to ship world-class care, in addition to cementing our place as a life sciences tremendous energy.
The UK continues to paved the way in ground-breaking analysis and I look ahead to receiving Lord O’Shaughnessy’s suggestions.”
Lord O’Shaughnessy’s assessment will construct on the federal government’s 10-year imaginative and prescient for scientific trials, Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery, revealed in March 2021. The assessment will take account of the work of the Recovery Resilience and Growth (UK RRG) program, which brings collectively companions throughout the well being system and business to assist ship this 10-year imaginative and prescient.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) have outlined a 44% drop within the variety of contributors recruited to business scientific trials within the final 5 years, exacerbated by the results of the pandemic. The variety of business scientific trials initiated within the UK per 12 months fell by 41% between 2017 and 2021.
Lord O’Shaughnessy will publish his recommendation this spring. This will embrace suggestions of precedence actions to make progress in 2023, in addition to setting out longer-term ambitions for UK scientific trials.