Some NHS staff are having to “overcome the cultural sniffing” of profit motives to work with pharmaceutical and tech companies to reverse the sharp drop in clinical trials in the UK, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has said.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Streeting outlined a plan to improve patient outcomes by putting clinical research back at the heart of health services, ahead of the release of a government-commissioned report lawsuit decline report.
His pitch comes as Labour’s plans for the NHS and social care come under greater scrutiny, with health set to be a key battleground in the upcoming general election, due to be held by January 2025.
“It’s not a bad thing that the people who come up with new ideas, new inventions, new treatments are in the private sector. I think we have to overcome some cultural distrust there,” Streeting said, criticizing the “inherently suspicious” attitude of some on the left and in the NHS towards profit motives.
While underscoring Labour’s commitment to a publicly funded health service that is free at the point of use, Streeting said it needed to work in partnership with pharmaceutical and technology companies to conduct more trials.
‘The NHS cannot lose hundreds of millions of pounds of business trial revenue almost accidentally and not care,’ he said, adding that ministers had been ‘asleep at the wheel’ on the position of the United Kingdom in the life sciences.
Ahead of the party’s launch of a healthcare ‘mission’ in the coming weeks, Streeting and Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer discussed improving cancer care and early diagnosis on Friday of the disease with leading researchers from academia, industry and charities.
The number of clinical trials in the UK has fallen by 41% since 2017, according to the British Pharmaceutical Industry Association, with the country falling from fourth to tenth place in the list of the most popular countries to organize trials. late-stage trials.
In March, a high level partnership with Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis to roll out a cholesterol-lowering drug was dropped because many GPs were unwilling to prescribe it. Some experts said the reluctance of GPs was partly the result of distrust of the pharmaceutical industry.
Streeting said practical reasons must also be “overcome” to improve the drug trial landscape.
If elected to government, the Labor Party for create a standard system for testing and rolling out effective drugs across the NHS, following criticism from businesses over the fragmented nature of the current setup.
Streeting said the party’s plan to double the number of places in medical schools and boost training for nurses and midwives would free up time for more clinicians to work on research.
He said Labor would also facilitate participation in clinical trials by using the NHS app to contact volunteer patients, describing as ‘scandalous’ the government’s failure to exploit the hundreds of thousands of people who have consented to take part in the trials for the Covid-19 vaccine for further studies.
The big pharmaceutical companies have warned that a sharp increase in the drug taxthe increase in corporation tax and the difficulty of introducing innovative products into the NHS reduce the attractiveness of investment in the UK.
Streeting accused the government of jeopardizing the UK’s position as an industry leader.
“Some of our life science leaders sometimes find the government to look and act almost actively disinterested, and shockingly complacent about some pretty big investment decisions. And therefore, there are undoubtedly jobs, investments and contracts that have gone elsewhere,” he said.
The Department of Health and Social Care said it was building a life sciences vision “to tackle some of the biggest public health challenges facing the UK, backed by £113m”.
“We have already delivered on our commitment to launch new, innovative healthcare missions that will improve patient health outcomes across the country,” he said, adding that reviewing clinical trials would help “ finding new ways to speed up diagnosis, improve treatment. . . as well as cementing our position as a life science superpower.”
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