Millions Pledged By Government To Turn UK Into “Life Sciences Superpower”
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Over £37m has been pledged by the government into new life sciences projects and data-driven initiatives, the Health Secretary announced at an industry conference.
In his speech to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced his plan to turn Great Britain into a “life sciences superpower”, which in turn would help the UK embrace innovations to transform people’s lives over the next decade.
This includes £37m worth of investments into genomics projects, studies on how the body’s genes influence how we grow and develop.
This included £17m worth of investments in research and life sciences marketing looking into several different genomics sectors, exploring public attitudes to these projects and how much potential value they have to the health service.
These include newborn sequencing, which would check a newborn child’s genetic makeup to look for potential health problems soon after they are born.
As well as this, the funding would look into increasing genomic cohort data sets to ensure that the information used matches the diverse population of the UK.
This funding would also focus on new approaches to cancer diagnosis, aiming to use a greater knowledge of genetics to diagnose people faster.
These initiatives, along with others that have received funding, are focused primarily on how genomics can be used as part of standard diagnostic procedures to help doctors make better, faster decisions about a patient’s treatment.
The rest of the funding, worth £20m, is set to be invested in life sciences research, focussed specifically on taking advantage of health data to boost clinical research in the UK.
This includes setting up an infrastructure to help invest in clinical trials and make them easier and quicker to set up and deliver.
This service, known as “Find, Recruit and Follow-Up”, aims to create a data-driven service that helps make finding suitable trial subjects quicker and easier to find.
Furthermore, this funding is earmarked for helping to develop medicines, vaccines and MedTech, by helping to fund state of the art research and studies that focused on the early detection of diseases.
This speech comes after the announcement of the Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund, which offers capital grant funding for manufacturers of medicines, diagnostic products and MedTech.
The scheme, worth up to £20m, is intended to help boost the medical manufacturing base of the UK, helping innovative technologies to scale up, manufacture on a mass scale and get medical products into the hands of consumers.
This does not include research and development, but instead the costs of installing equipment, building facilities and developing manufacturing bases to ensure they reach a commercial scale.
The ABPI’s chief executive, Richard Torbett, called the announcement a recognition of the part the life sciences sector has to play plans to turn the UK into a scientific superpower.
He further described the announcement as putting the UK “at the cutting edge” of healthcare by focusing on initiatives that further the development of personalised healthcare.