£120m health research boost
pharmafile | January 10, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Hunt, NHS, NIHR, TXA
The Department of Health is putting £120 million of new funding into health research over the next five years in a bid to tackle common medical issues.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt says the problems which the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) scheme is designed to help solve, could range from fighting life-threatening illnesses to creating better joined-up care.
“If we can have better tests, better technology and make better use of the skills of NHS staff, we will be in a better position to tackle the changing needs of our population,” Hunt said.
The NIHR is already behind the £60 million Clinical Practice Research Datalink service, which allows researchers access to anonymised NHS clinical data for observational research, and the Dementia and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Network.
The new investment will support a dozen NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR CLAHRCs) – funding for which research groups can bid until May this year.
The government sets much store by the success of these projects, which are designed to encourage translating research evidence into practice in the NHS.
It highlights work by the NIHR CLAHRC in the south west of England in 2008, which revealed the risk of death in patients with severe bleeding was reduced by up to 30% if Tranexamic acid (TXA) was administered within three hours.
TXA is administered routinely by military trauma teams, but its use in the NHS had been limited, and it is estimated that it could save 400 lives a year in the UK.
Another NIHR CLAHRC, for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and NHS East of England, showed in a study of 40,000 patients that over-the-phone therapy for depression was as effective – and 30% cheaper for the NHS – as if it had been face-to-face.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, said: “The collaborations will conduct the very highest quality research across universities, the NHS and in other relevant organisations.”
The Ethical Medicines Industry Group (EMIG) welcomed the new funding announcement.
“EMIG supports the Government’s commitment to the development and sustenance of a vibrant life sciences industry in the UK,” said its chairman Leslie Galloway.
“The NIHR’s work contributes significantly to making Britain one of the best research centres in the world and delivers valuable improvements to the care of patients,” he added.
Adam Hill
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