UK pharma downbeat on its future – survey

pharmafile | November 8, 2011 | News story | Research and Development ABPI, R&D, VBP, rsa 

The impacts of NHS reform and the increasingly high cost of R&D is causing pharma to doubt its future in the UK. 

This is according to a new survey undertaken by recruitment firm RSA that shows leaders in the UK life sciences industry are concerned about the UK’s position as a centre for global R&D.

The UK Life Sciences Leaders’ Survey 2011 also shows that UK pharma want the government to do more to help the industry, and has doubts about how its new value-based pricing (VBP) scheme will work.

In its report last year, RSA said the feeling was more optimistic as pharma leaders believed the new Conservative-led coalition government would improve the overall business environment.

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But this has now changed RSA say, and the message coming out of the 2011 survey is “that the general feeling of optimism has declined to an even split between the quite optimistic, quite pessimistic, and the indifferent”.

The general consensus seems to be that UK competitiveness has deteriorated and the government could be doing more to create the right environment for life sciences to prosper. 

The three main issues coming from the survey are: the rising cost of doing business in the UK that is driving business offshore; the reform of NHS management and the introduction of a new drug pricing system; and the regulatory burden in both the UK and Europe, which is hampering R&D.

Value-based pricing concern

VBP was the biggest gripe for pharma, and will in 2014 replace the current PPRS scheme and allow government to set drug prices based on the value a medicine is deemed to bring.

Around half of those that answered the question on VBP believe it will reduce market access and lead to the UK falling behind as an early launch market. 

In contrast, health technology assessments are broadly welcomed as a means of enhancing value and meeting therapeutic needs.

Stephen Whitehead, chief executive of the ABPI said: “The survey indicates that we need to do more to support biopharmaceutical companies and the NHS in creating an environment where innovation, in all its forms, can be allowed to thrive.”  

He said that there is much that the government has done to support the industry, particularly through the Growth Review and the Office for Life Sciences, which picked out the industry as one of the key drivers for growth. 

“But we need to build on this,” he said, “as part of a continuing relationship with NHS and government to explore how unnecessary bureaucracy can be eliminated from the healthcare system so that new treatments can reach patients as quickly as possible”.

Ben Adams

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