Barker praises OLS model
pharmafile | February 5, 2010 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | ABPI, Blueprint, OLS
The ABPI’s director general spoke to Pharmafocus about the promise of the new Blueprint at its launch in London last week.
Dr Richard Barker says the research Super Cluster and the speedy way of working through the Office of Life Sciences were a considerable step forward.
“It is really refreshing to see at ministerial level and senior NHS level that they really ‘get it’ – how the industry can enable the NHS to reach its own goals, and how the NHS contributes to economic growth.”
Q: Health Secretary Andy Burnham indicated that he believed closer collaboration between the NHS and pharma can help produce the ‘productivity savings’ the service needs to find over the next few years. Is that a realistic aspiration?
A: “Some things can be quick, but most things do take a number of years. Take diabetes for instance.
“If we could bring together better early stage detection, we could treat them earlier and intervene with the right diagnostics, then the net bill for the NHS will be much lower.
“If you can use the best quality products, then to try to get a [cost savings] return within 12 months, it is always going to be tempting to cut something, whether it be medicines or some other technology.
“But I think the government are looking a bit further ahead.
“I think that the really tough years are actually 2-5 years away, and it’s in those years that we will see the benefit.”
Q: The UK general election is imminent, could that endanger the progress made?
A: “We have told all of the political parties that this mechanism of working together between the industry and the government works.
“What we’ve heard back is that ‘well if it works, we are probably not going to disrupt it, if it is delivering for the UK’.
“Those conversations have been very long and we’ve made it clear we are relatively pleased, but there is still some more work to do – particularly on clinical trials and the uptake of innovation on the NHS.
“Yes, political leadership is absolutely critical, but I think the biggest difference is going to be made by working alongside the NHS leaders, people like the chief executives of SHA, PCTs and secondary care trusts.
“They need some direction and approval from political leaders, but they don’t actually need to be told what to do.
“[North West SHA chief executive] Mike Farrar is heading up the Innovation Delivery Board, which we have never had before.
“We have often had recommendations saying something should be done, but now we have a mechanism to do it.
“Mike Farrar has said that once he had understood this agenda, he was very quick to make sure his PCT chief executives also understand and followed up on it.
“So I think once the NHS grasps it itself, we are slightly less dependent on the political leadership.”
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