The Director and Chief Executive of The Francis Crick Institute, Paul Nurse, who is also the President of the Royal Society, has welcomed government plans to boost UK life sciences and make the country more attractive to pharmaceutical companies.
Among a number of measures suggested by the Prime Minister David Cameron are the creation of a £180 million catalyst fund to support biomedical start-up companies. He also announced plans to cut regulations surrounding clinical trials, and give some seriously ill patients drug treatments a year earlier than current licensing rules allow.
In February, the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, announced the closure of its research and development facility at Sandwich in Kent.
Today, Mr Cameron set out the government’s strategy for retaining and attracting pharmaceutical companies in the UK. In a speech at the FT Global Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Conference, the Prime Minister said: “We can be proud of our past – but we cannot be complacent about our future. The industry is changing; not just year by year, but month by month. We must ensure that the UK stays ahead, yes, we’ve got a leading science base; we’ve got four of the world’s top ten universities; and, we have a National Health Service unlike any other. But these strengths alone are not enough to keep pace with what’s happening – we’ve got to change radically – the way we innovate, the way we collaborate, the way we open up the NHS.”
On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the idea of giving private companies access to anonymous NHS patient records was welcomed by Paul Nurse: “What I think is most interesting is a potential cultural change at the National Health Service – to consider it not just as an organisation delivering care but as a fantastic research resource as well.”
You can listen to Paul Nurse’s interview on Today here.
You can read more about the government’s plans here
