UK science at a ‘tipping point’
pharmafile | April 26, 2007 | News story | Research and Development |
The future for the UK's medical science base looks very bright, according to leading figures in the government, science and the pharmaceutical industry.
Stakeholders seem to agree that a handful of innovative interventions by the government in recent years have created conditions which could make the UK a true world leader in the field.
The leaders, including government minister Lord Hunt and GSK's European head Andrew Witty, came together at the recent The Next Frontier conference in London to discuss the way forward for collaboration.
Among the most significant developments has been the Cooksey report, which has set out a plan for breaking down boundaries between research carried out in universities, in the NHS and in industry.
While there have been false dawns in the past in relation to such initiatives, there seems cause for genuine optimism because the new joined-up thinking is already beginning to bear fruit.
For example, the National Cancer Research Network was established in 2001 with the aim of creating new links between the NHS, academia and industry, accelerating research and, ultimately, benefiting patients.
Now, six years on, 11% of cancer patients in the UK are enrolled in a commercial oncology clinical trial, a massive increase over previous rates and an achievement believed to be replicated nowhere else in the world.
When asked if the new momentum behind collaboration was cause for optimism, Sally Davis, Director of R&D at the Department of Health told Pharmafocus: "This is not just a cause for optimism, this is a tipping point."
She added: "Nobody in the world is doing what we are doing. The US and Europe are watching very closely what is happening here in the UK.
"This is one of the most exciting times in health research that the country has faced. There are unprecedented opportunities and we must ensure we don't squander them."
In addition to the NCRN, six further specialist research networks have been set up, and the government has taken the rare step of ringfencing the Department of Healths R&D budget to ensure it isn't raided for other purposes.
The Cooksey report identified mixed feelings within the NHS towards research, but the research networks will promote the benefits of research to NHS trusts, including the widely-held belief that clinical trials help raise overall standards of care.
Further research funding from the government will no longer be distributed automatically, so trusts will have to apply for the funds for the first time.
Overcoming inertia and lack of transparency over the costs and administration of clinical trials remains one of the biggest barriers to industry conducting more research with individual NHS trusts.
A clear example of this is the model clinical trials agreement – an initiative launched in 2001 aimed at providing a standard template for commercial trials on the NHS.
The model has just been re-published by the Department of Health, which is understood to have found both NHS trusts and pharmaceutical companies customising the template and thus complicating the approval process.
Representing the industry at the event, Andrew Witty also sounded upbeat on the UK's future, even when considering NICE and the Office of Fair Trading report on the country's pricing system.
He said he believed the OFT asked some reasonable questions, but implied that the debate should centre around not scrapping the current PPRS system as suggested in the report, but merely updating it.
"It's important to take our time on it – we don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water by being too precipitous," he said.
He added: "It seems that if we continue to put the same energy behind promoting research and its benefits, then we will create a very positive environment in the UK
"That's important because the UK is clearly a leader in Europe, and we need to make sure the UK continues to innovate in this area."
Witty even suggested that the UK was a world leader in terms of putting the patient at the centre of healthcare considerations – unlike its European neighbours which focused on cost containment, and said these values should be exported to the rest of the world.
He said this kind of investment and focus was required when Asian economies such as India and China were producing so many skilled graduates and competing for the pharma industry's R&D investment.
Witty said NICE's current methodology made it inevitable that it would reject new cancer drugs, saying this was a conundrum which had to be solved for the sake of patients.
