George Freeman – a US blog
pharmafile | January 27, 2015 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | ABPI, Cameron, Kaiser Permanente, Obama, george freeman, google, life sciences
It is a privilege to have been appointed as the first ever minister for life sciences.
I’m determined to ensure that the UK remains a world leader in the sector – securing more inward investment from across the world, more domestic venture capital and more exports and collaboration.
The life sciences sector is central to the government’s long term plan for a rebalanced economy. That is why we published our long term UK Strategy for Life Sciences in 2011, recognising that the life sciences sector is key to the UK’s economic prosperity and our 21st Century healthcare economy.
This strategy is working – it is estimated that £3.5 billion has been invested in the UK life sciences sector in just three years and some 11,000 new jobs have already been announced or committed.
But this is a global sector, which is exactly why I have been on two fact finding and collaboration building visits to the US over the last six months.
In a week where prime minister David Cameron visited president Obama, highlighting the strength of UK-American diplomatic relationships, I learnt about how our different systems are responding to the same pressures of an ageing society and spiralling healthcare costs.
I attended the JP Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco, where there was one key message on everyone’s lips – the fact that we need to find new ways of embracing earlier diagnostics, and prevention in 21st Century health systems.
This is a key priority for me and is the reason why I have launched the Innovative Medicines and MedTech Review to look at accelerating the development of medicines, diagnostics and devices – speeding up the access to innovative products for NHS patients.
I talked about this with the FDA, congressional leaders, and patient groups in Washington, and shared thinking on how we can accelerate access to innovation safely.
In San Francisco I also met with Google and learnt about the future of medicine with their life sciences and genetics divisions, and with Kaiser Permanente to think about the future of reimbursement.
Despite our very different health systems, we share a common need to diagnose, prevent a treat disease more accurately. US and UK innovators have much to share.
I want to ensure that patients up and down the country can get access to new innovations as soon as possible, and that the patient voice is heard. By revolutionising the way in which we look at getting medicines and devices into the NHS we will make sure that the UK remains one of the best places in the world for 21st Century medical innovation.
By unlocking the power of our deep scientific leadership, integrated NHS, genomic and data platforms, and or vibrant technology venture sector, the UK can be a powerhouse in life sciences.
These are the key messages I gave to counterparts in the US and they are more than keen to work with us to make this happen.
I have every confidence that our relationships with businesses in the US and across the world will continue to grow and we will see even more investment in our exciting and ever growing life sciences sector.
George Freeman
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