Department Of Health
Well thank you, Richard [Torbett] good afternoon, its great to be able to join you.
As youve just been touching on some of my past roles, its over five years since I was last in the Department of Health working then as a Minister of State.
And in those five years, weve seen game-changing breakthroughs in science and technology.
Weve seen a once-in-a-generation pandemic.
Weve seen Britain depart, as youve just mentioned, from the European Union.
And weve also seen the full consequences of the pandemic itself.
And those factors have come together to shape a landscape that is very different today, than it was five years ago in 2018.
The application of AI into almost every aspect of our lives might be receiving lots of attention today, particularly with things such as ChatGPT.
But the potential of AI in life science is something we in this room have long been alive to, from detecting cancers to scanning potential transplant organs.
Equally, pharmaceutical breakthroughs and their rapid deployment through the NHS have been turning the tide on diseases like HIV and Hep-C, and helping to bring us to a point where we can realistically talk about elimination something which 10 years ago would have been unimaginable.
Next, the pandemic has ushered in some powerful new ways of working. The Vaccines Taskforce brought many of us in government to working very closely with industry and academia in ways that we had not done before.
And in its simplest terms we learned a lot about how to make things happen at pace.
And it offers much promise for breakthroughs in some other areas dealing with health challenges that we face in the months and years ahead.
And the third big shift is that the UK left the European Union, just as the pandemic began to take hold across Europe.
And as Brexit Secretary leading our exit at that time, I recognised that in taking control of our rules and regulations we have a chance to show global leadership in important areas including life science.
Now, with your help and support, we are doing just that. Building a more bespoke regulatory system thats ready for the innovations of today but is also building the agility to respond quickly to the innovations of tomorrow.
Now the question weve been trying to answer today, in the sessions Ive been hearing that youve been having is how do we seize those opportunities?
And I know you heard from some of my colleagues, from June Raine and Ros Campion earlier, on How we build on the UKs global strengths. And weve heard about the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agencys (MHRA) laser-like focus on process, partnerships and people.
And this afternoon, I want to add some of my own thoughts on how we seize the opportunities that are in front of us.
The first way is with an unashamedly pro-innovation approach to regulation.
Now the theme of todays conference is Growing the UK as a Global Hub for Life Sciences and we have the largest life sciences sector in Europe.
And the benefits of that to the UK economy are vast, not just from the jobs created, but from the transformative change it offers for the NHS. A key priority is to ensure that great science is then fast-tracked into the very bloodstream of our NHS.
And that is why in the Budget, we announced an extra 10 million of funding for MHRA, so they can put in place a quicker, simpler, regulatory process for all approvals for innovative treatments, without compromising, in any way, patient safety. And that is building on the ever-closer working relationship that the MHRA and NICE have developed through the ILAP pathway.
Now we aim to develop the most effective regulatory approvals process of anywhere in the world. And we are fortunate to have the MHRA one of the most respected drug regulators globally and, of course, the first to license a vaccine for Covid.
From next year, the MHRA will set up a swift new approval process for the most cutting-edge medicines and devices to grow the UKs role as a global hub for their development. And at the same time, from next year, they will allow the near-automatic sign-off for medicines and technologies already approved by trusted regulators in other parts of the world such as the United States, Europe, and Japan.
And the real value is that near-automatic recognition of other regulators in some areas, such as license extensions, will in turn free up valuable regulatory resource to focus on other cutting-edge areas, like AI in medical devices.
And this kind of smart regulation made possible by the greater agility brought by our Brexit freedoms meets our twin goals: Growing the UK as a global life sciences hub, while ensuring patients in the NHS have access to some of the most innovative medicines and treatments that can be found anywhere in the world.
Now many of you will be aware that this coming change was an interim recommendation from the report into Life Sciences regulations, which is going to be published next month. And I want to put on record, Richard, my thanks to everyone who played their part in that important piece of work.
Not least the ABPI, who have been so keenly engaged, including how you worked with the independent champions.
Im looking forward to hearing further recommendations and the benefits they can bring to the sector and patients alike.
Now today, I also want to briefly comment on VPAS. The government and the pharmaceutical industry came together to negotiate a voluntary agreement, which has endured for many decades and created a stable basis for investment, access, and uptake. And it has done so while saving the NHS billions of pounds which in turn has been reinvested into patient care.
The negotiations for a successor agreement will begin soon and I very much welcome the appointment of Sir Hugh Taylor, who brings vast experience in this area, and I hope assures Richard, colleagues, as to the seriousness with which we are taking these negotiations.
And you heard a little earlier from the Prime Minister, which I hope further underscores our desire to deliver a successor to VPAS - which needs to be a deal that is good for patients, good for the NHS, and good for you too.
The core value that sits at the heart of all of this whether its innovative regulation or VPAS is that the government is a committed partner.
And we are guided by our Life Sciences Vision, which sets out our ten-year plan for the sector, including seven missions for all of us government, industry, the NHS, academia, medical research charities and others to solve together.
And together, our work on everything from cancer to dementia, cardiovascular disease to mental health will not only support the NHS but it will help the wider economy by improving productivity and life expectancy.
Now weve already been putting this into practice.
In January we signed a memorandum of understanding with BioNTech to bring innovative vaccine technology to this country, with the potential to transform outcomes for cancer patients. The partnership means that, from as early as this September our patients will be amongst the first to participate in trials and tests to provide targeted, personalised and precision treatments. And that will use transformative new therapies to both treat existing cancers and to help stop them from returning.
That deal builds on the 10-year partnership we struck with Moderna in December to invest in the mRNA research and development in the UK and establish a state-of-the-art vaccine manufacturing centre here.
We want to partner with those who share our commitment to scientific advancement, innovation, and cutting-edge technology.
Were the third biggest investor of government funding into health R&D as a proportion of GDP in the world and were upholding our promise to increase research and development spending to 20 billion a year. And that is at a time when there are many competing challenges for the Chancellor to meet.
Its not just something Im proud of for its own sake, but something Im determined we use to its full potential, so we can transform peoples lives and opportunities both here and abroad.
And if theres one message I want you to take from my speech today its this: we need companies including a great many represented by you in this room today to invest in UK clinical trials.
I know there are challenges, and we are listening, not least on how we can support those consultant clinical academics who drive medical breakthroughs.
It is why we have commissioned James OShaughnessy to conduct an independent review of the UK commercial clinical trials landscape.
And James has been kind enough to share some of his early findings and we will formally respond in the coming weeks.
And I know youve also heard from June Raine earlier about the MHRAs work to simplify requirements and remove barriers.
Theres a lot of potential around clinical research and the changes ahead can bring a huge number of wins.
Wins for patients who will get access to the latest innovative medicines that will become the Standard of Care in years to come.
Wins for the NHS not just to boost to their income, but also because we know that hospitals that are active in research have better outcomes.
And wins for industry who can work with a single NHS from leading institutions and hospitals to primary care.
Because, with its unrivalled scale, breadth and potential, the NHS should be the research partner like no other on Earth. But I recognise that, for those of you in the room, that has too oft