Britain Works To Speed Patient Access To New Drugs

Three years into Prime Minister David Cameron’s ten-year strategy for boosting life sciences in the U.K., the British government is working with pharma industry leaders to speed patient access to newly approved drugs. The move is hoped to improve patient care and make the U.K. more attractive to foreign pharma investors, Reuters reports.

In 2011, David Cameron launched his Strategy for U.K. Life Sciences, and in the opening statements, Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health and David Willets, Minister of State for Universities and Science both reflected on what was needed for the U.K.’s pharma industry to continue to expand.

They remarked in 2011, “Western countries such as the U.S. and Germany have developed simpler regulatory processes to approve new therapies. So, if we are to remain competitive, we must up our game in the U.K.”

The U.K. is currently home for pharmaceutical power houses such as AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, but some companies complain that the government-based NHS is too sluggish to keep up with the flood of new therapies that hit the market each year.

One of the hurdles that new drugs have to jump through in the U.K. is The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), founded in 1999 and expanded in 2013. 

NICE’s responsibilities include issuing guidances for treatment regimens and support care. Most notably, the Institute assesses new drugs in terms of quality and safety, and it evaluates the drugs’ value for the money. A new drug must not only be safe and effective, it must remain affordable for U.K. patients and the NHS system.

This additional consideration is unique to the British healthcare system, and NICE has frequently rejected medicines, especially new cancer treatments, which the organization deemed too expensive.

Reuters reports that the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry wants to incorporate its efforts with NICE, working with it and not against it.

As per Cameron’s plan, foreign pharmaceutical companies continue to invest in the U.K. 

U.S.-based Merck recently announced plans to invest $66 million dollars over the next three years to expand its U.K. research facilities and to build a licensing hub in London. Likewise, Reuters reports that Becton Dickinson is investing another $33 million.

Domestically, Innovate U.K. and the Medical Research Council plan to provide $48 million to support the Biomedical Catalyst funding program.