What does the data tell us?

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) received 798 applications for commercial clinical trials in 2018 ²

Since 2017, Phase I clinical trial activity has declined in the UK, with 95 trials initiated in 2018, compared with 117 in 2017. This is a trend seen across European comparators, with the UK maintaining its lead in Europe for Phase I trials.

For Phase II, the UK ranks second globally, with 268 trials initiated in 2018, compared with the USA, ranking first with 1,021 trials initiated.

The UK continues to fall behind global competitors for Phase III clinical trials, with 292 trials initiated in the UK in 2018 – ranking the UK third in Europe behind Germany and Spain.

Oncology remains the UK’s strongest research area, with 226 trials initiated in the UK in 2018.

China’s clinical research environment has continued to grow across all clinical trial phases, with 234 Phase I, 190 Phase II and 219 Phase III trials initiated in 2018 – a substantial increase in activity compared with 2017.

In 2018/2019, 870,250 people took part in research studies supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN)³.

As of 9 September, data from the NIHR CRN shows that 45% of studies (2,676) are open to recruitment, with 36% of open studies recruiting since the 1 June ²⁷.