Labour budget can unlock UK life science opportunities

Ahead of the first Labour budget for 14 years, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has outlined the key measures needed to improve UK life science competitiveness, boost UK R&D, and fully realise the benefits of innovative medicines and vaccines for NHS patients.

In its pre-budget submission to the Chancellor, the ABPI has set out four key areas where, with suitable measures in place, Rachel Reeves can unlock the enormous potential of UK life sciences to power economic growth and make lasting improvements to NHS performance and public health. [1]

Commenting ahead of the budget, Richard Torbett, Chief Executive of the ABPI, said: “The Chancellor has been unwavering in her determination to boost investment, growth and jobs in this country. The inclusion of life sciences in the new industrial strategy as a critical growth sector shows the government's recognition that we can be a crucial partner in delivering its ambition for investment and growth.

“Our industry wants to see a budget with support for innovation and improving UK international competitiveness at its heart. This must be underpinned by a new industrial strategy which recognises the huge untapped growth potential of life sciences and understands the link between the commercial environment for medicines and attracting greater investment from leading global companies.”

1. Incentivise investment and boost UK competitiveness
The UK has worked hard to create a compelling offer for investment from innovation-focused companies. This includes the globally competitive ‘patent box’ incentive, which rewards and incentivises the commercialisation of UK innovations, and the existing structure of R&D tax credits.

Such measures should be taken even further while also pushing ahead with the £520 million Life Sciences Manufacturing Capital Grants Facility, setting a longer-term ambition to increase funding in the event of oversubscription.

To ensure the UK has the skills and talent it needs, the Chancellor should consider reducing UK visa costs and accelerating processing speeds in line with those of other leading economies.

2. Improve UK attractiveness for industry research and development (R&D)
The Chancellor should maintain the current level of public support and investment into R&D next year with an adjustment linked to inflation. However, she should go further and set out an ambition for the UK to achieve the highest level of public R&D investment in the G7 before the end of this parliament.

The Chancellor has the opportunity to supercharge the UK as a destination of choice for industry investment in discovery phase and clinical research by targeting public R&D investment toward two key areas. The first is a major cross-sector UK initiative to develop new technology to help better understand diseases and more efficiently develop new medicines. The second would be to establish an internationally competitive dedicated health data research service.

3. Realising the full benefit of innovative medicines and vaccines
The UK is failing in its duty to treat people with severe conditions in a way the public would expect by unnecessarily restricting access to effective medicines for severe conditions over cost concerns, which the Voluntary Scheme already addresses. We urge the Chancellor to give NICE permission to abandon the opportunity-cost-neutral approach to implementing its severity modifier. More broadly, the Chancellor should enable NHS England (NHSE) to update the NHS Commercial Framework to ensure better patient access to innovative products.

The ABPI would like to see a formalised, system-wide approach to horizon scanning for vaccines, and ensure we provide adequate funding for the national immunisation programme.

4. Deliver a globally competitive regulatory system that supports innovation and enhances patient access to new medicines
The pharmaceutical industry strongly supports giving the MHRA the resources it needs to provide a world-leading regulatory office. We also want to see ring-fenced resourcing for a refreshed and relaunched Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP).

The full ABPI pre-budget submission is available to download here.