The federal government has appointed Lord James O’Shaughnessy, Senior Companion at consultancy agency Newmarket Technique, Board Member of Well being Knowledge Analysis UK (HDR UK), and former Well being Minister, to conduct an impartial assessment into the UK business scientific trials panorama.
The assessment will provide suggestions on how business scientific trials might help the life sciences sector unlock UK development and funding alternatives. This may even advise on the way to resolve key challenges in conducting business scientific trials within the UK.
George Freeman, Minister for State on the new Division for Science, Innovation and Expertise, mentioned:
Business 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 world location for trials, as demonstrated most lately by means of the ground-breaking Covid Restoration trial which was arrange in file time and was the world’s largest randomized managed trial for COVID-19.
Nevertheless, our life sciences sector has reported a 44% fall in recruitment of sufferers to business scientific trials between 2017 and 2021 – so it’s important that we act to rebuild competitiveness.
That’s the reason I am delighted that Lord O’Shaughnessy will lead this impartial assessment to determine the important thing steps we have to take.”
Well being 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, trade and healthcare specialists to get cutting-edge medicines to sufferers quicker.
This assessment will assist us to seek 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 cleared the path 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 Bettering Lives: The Way forward for UK Scientific Analysis Supply, revealed in March 2021. The assessment will take account of the work of the Restoration Resilience and Progress (UK RRG) program, which brings collectively companions throughout the well being system and trade to assist ship this 10-year imaginative and prescient.
The Affiliation of the British Pharmaceutical Business (ABPI) have outlined a 44% drop within the variety of contributors recruited to business scientific trials within the final 5 years, exacerbated by the consequences of the pandemic. The variety of trade scientific trials initiated within the UK per yr fell by 41% between 2017 and 2021.
Lord O’Shaughnessy will publish his recommendation this spring. This can embrace suggestions of precedence actions to make progress in 2023, in addition to setting out longer-term ambitions for UK scientific trials.
