Written by - 2 minute read
The list of urgent issues includes rising drug and treatment costs, staff pay and retention, a patient population both growing and ageing, a wait of up to three weeks to access a GP nationwide, and backlogged hospital waiting lists still north of seven million.
Britain’s new Labour government’s first act was to agree to a pay increase for junior doctors, followed by an announcement of a joint public-private £400 million investment to boost private and public sector trials in the UK through The 2024 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicine Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG) Investment Programme.
The latter makes sense given that just two years ago, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)’s ‘Rescuing Patient Access to Industry Clinical Trials in the UK’ report sounded the alarm on the UK’s declining reputation as a centre of excellence for industry clinical research. The report showed the number of industry clinical trials initiated per year in the UK fell 41% between 2017 and 2021, denting the UK’s global ranking for innovation in medicines and cutting patient access to clinical trials across the NHS, as NIHR reported, by 44%.
VPAG’s proposed five year lab-to-ward scheme – coordinated between the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and ABPI – aims to drive innovative research and cutting edge treatments across the UK’s life sciences and health sector. 75% of the total sum will fund 18 new clinical trial hubs – Commercial Research Delivery Centres – across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, launching in 2025. The remainder will promote sustainable manufacturing in the pharmaceutical sector (20%) and modernise Health Technology Assessment processes (5%).
Given ABPI reported industry clinical trials contributed £7.4 billion gross value added to the UK economy in 2022, and created 65,000 jobs, of which the NHS received £1.2 billion in direct revenue from clinical trials and opened 13,000 new positions, this is a proven field in which to invest.
If you’re more cautious about the availability of new trial participants, the National Institute for Health and Care Research reports 1,289,937 altruistic individuals have signed up for clinical trials in England alone since 2019.
Considered holistically, if the 18 new hubs launch to schedule and new treatments benefiting patients are discovered, VPAG will tick multiple success markers and ignite the first steps in remedying the NHS’s ills, by bringing investment, creating jobs, driving research and development, revalidating the NHS as a core part of the UK’s dominance in global clinical trials and of course helping patients in need.
Do you think VPAG will deliver? And beyond that, what do you think should be the next step to fix the NHS?
Leading the conversation
Read more from our collection of industry insights and thought-provoking articles.