Government injects £775m into NHS translational research

pharmafile | March 7, 2011 | News story | Research and Development ABPI, Kent, NHS research, Pfizer research Kent, Sandwich, Science and Technology Select Committee, translational research 

The government has pledged around £775 million for translational research, saying it will help modernise the health service and support research jobs in the UK.

The funds will be delivered over five years and are part of the government’s £4 billion research and development investment programme, which will support NHS/university partnerships from 2011 to March 2015.

UK life sciences were shaken recently by Pfizer’s decision to close its Kent research base by 2013 with the loss of 2,400 jobs and the government’s investment could provide the sector with a welcome boost.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “This is a great day for science and in particular health research in this country. We have an enviable track record in making new discoveries and developing new treatments, and this important funding will help to maintain our position as a centre of scientific excellence.

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“A strong science and research base is crucial to help secure sustainable economic growth, helping to rebalance the economy and create the jobs of the future, which is why despite tough spending decisions we have protected its funding.

Health secretary Andrew Lansley said the investment would be “vital to achieving our goal of making the NHS a world-leading healthcare system”.

To give NHS patients the best possible treatment “we need to give British researchers the tools they need to develop new world-class treatments and innovations”, he added.

The government has said applications for funding “are encouraged” to focus on improving health outcomes for patients in high priority disease areas such as dementia, cancer and heart disease.

A bleak climate for UK research?

The £775 million will also aim at offsetting the loss of the UK’s main pharma R&D site run by Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent.

Pfizer’s decision to pull out of the UK will see the loss of around 2,250 jobs by 2013 as the US company braces for the patent loss of Lipitor in the US. 

At a Science and Technology Select Committee hearing last week senior Pfizer executives told MPs that they were in confidential talks with 10 external parties to try and keep the Sandwich site within the life sciences domain.

But as a witness at the enquiry ABPI director general Richard Barker bemoaned the lack of research focus in the NHS.

“Research hasn’t been a focus,” he told the cross part of influential MPs. “We need the life sciences industry to work with the NHS and vice versa.”

He said the NHS has always “resisted the new”, but now needed to be incentivised to make research a “key component” of its infrastructure.

He suggested that primary care trusts and strategic health authorities should have research-based targets in order to “attune the NHS” to the research climate and make R&D a “major priority”.

Ben Adams

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