UK set on resolving standoff with big pharma, science minister says | Pharmaceuticals industry

The United Kingdom is determined to resolve its deadlock with the pharmaceutical industry and to reverse a 10-year drop in NHS medication expenses, the Minister of Sciences said after a series of drug manufacturers have canceled projects worth 2 billion Sterling pounds.

Patrick Vallance, a former manager of the GSK medication manufacturer, said the country had to increase medication spending and reverse a decade of drop in investments.

“We are determined to solve this problem,” Lord Vallance told the Communes Committee. “It’s not something [where] We are seated by saying that we look at the decline in industry. This is what has happened in the past 10 years. We must not do this. We have to act. It’s now a pivotal moment … to try to do things well. »»

The deputies called an emergency session in response to last week’s decision by the American drug manufacturer Merck, known as MSD in Europe, to remove his plans for a London research center of 1 billion pounds Sterling and dismiss 125 scientists in part based in the Francis Crick Institute of the Capital. MSD blamed “the challenges of the United Kingdom not to make significant progress towards the lack of investment in the life sciences industry”.

Astrazeneca announced on Friday that he put a new 200 million pounds Sterling laboratory in Cambridge. He abandoned an investment of 450 million pounds Sterling in his vaccination site Speke in January after months of negotiations, citing a reduction in government support.

Vallance, which has become a familiar name as chief scientific advisor during the Covid pandemic, told deputies on Tuesday that NHS medication expenses had been down in proportion to total health care expenses since 2015, but said that the figure would increase compared to the current 9%.

“The reason we have to reverse this direction is not only the price,” he said. “This is to say that we must make sure that we obtain rapid absorption of the best new drugs and that we have fair access across the United Kingdom.”

He said that the British medication regulator, the regulatory agency for medicines and health products and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which decides which drugs will be available on the NHS, should be linked.

Dr. Zubir Ahmed, the new under-secretary of health and an Scottish surgeon, said that the United Kingdom was to change its price models in recognition of new advanced treatments, which are more expensive.

“We have to examine the drugs in a different light … and calculate the economic and clinical advantages on this basis,” he said.

Vallance said that the government had not officially restarted talks with the pharmaceutical industry compared to its medication pricing mechanism, which collapsed last month without agreement and was cited as one of the factors of drug manufacturers canceling projects, but the ministers held “many discussions on the commercial environment in the United Kingdom” with companies.

“We cannot afford to lose this UK industry,” he said. “It is very important that we have two large world companies. This counts, whether two,” he said, referring to Astrazeneca and GSK.

Earlier Tuesday, the deputies heard of the British chief of MSD, Ben Lucas, who said it was a “sad day that we were leaving because we appreciated our collaboration with the Crick”. The company also plans to close its animal health site in Milton Keynes and transfer the work in Austria.

British President of Astrazeneca, Tom Keith-Roach, told deputies: “We are now involved in a very constructive conversation with the government at the highest level, despite the fact that it is an extremely difficult moment in history and a very substantial challenge; The issue of underinvestment in medicines was a continuous and aggravated trend in the United Kingdom. ”

The head of the British pharmaceutical industry association Richard Torbett said the United Kingdom was losing against the United States, Belgium, Ireland, Singapore and Germany.