Medicines are transforming our lives like never before.
We want the UK to be the best place in the world to research, develop and use the medicines of the future.
This manifesto sets out the views of the ABPI’s members of how to best capitalise on the UK’s life science industry and improve the health of UK patients following the 2019 General Election. We focus on three main themes:
Making the UK the best place in the world for patients to get cutting edge medicines and vaccines.
Prioritising patients and health security in the future UK – EU relationship.
Building a thriving environment for medicine discovery so the UK can be the best place in the world to research and develop new medicines and vaccines.
Medicines are transforming our lives like never before. We want the UK to be the best place in the world to research, develop and use the medicines of the future.
This manifesto sets out the views of the ABPI’s members of how to best capitalise on the UK’s life science industry and improve the health of UK patients following the 2019 General Election. We focus on three main themes:
Making the UK the best place in the world for patients to get cutting edge medicines and vaccines.
Prioritising patients and health security in the future UK – EU relationship.
Building a thriving environment for medicine discovery so the UK can be the best place in the world to research and develop new medicines and vaccines.
Medicines Spend is Under Control
The 2019 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAS) is an agreement between the Government, NHS and ABPI.
The agreement means that the NHS has complete predictability on how much it spends on branded medicines, supports NHS patients to get new medicines quickly, and helps to foster innovation in the pharmaceutical industry.
To do this, the scheme:
Ensures NHS expenditure on branded medicines is capped to 2% growth a year for the next 5 years. Companies pay back any expenditure over this amount directly to the Government.
Aspires to see greater uptake of the most clinically and cost-effective medicines that provide significant health gain.
Making the UK the best place in the world for patients to get cutting edge medicines and vaccines.
Creating an NHS ‘fit for the future’ is about embracing cutting edge technology so all patients in the UK have access to world-class standards of care and disease prevention.
Working together, the ABPI and the next Government can deliver patient access to the latest medicines and vaccines. The agreement in place between the Government and pharmaceutical companies which caps medicines spending growth at 2%, will allow us to do this in a way which is sustainable for the NHS.
The next Government should:
Invest in new medicines. Ensure that money paid back to the NHS by pharmaceutical companies under the Voluntary pricing and access scheme is used to improve the ability of patients to access the latest medicines much faster by funding access and uptake initiatives for new medicines.
Value patients’ lives more than ever before. The baseline cost effectiveness thresholds currently used by NICE, unchanged for over 20 years, need to be applied much more flexibly to reflect the full impact of new medicines on patients, carers, the NHS and society.
Evolve NICE so NHS patients are amongst the first in the world to benefit from new medicines.
Increase the number of clinical trials in the UK, so patients can benefit from the latest new medicines. This can be done by driving collaboration between the NHS and the life sciences sector and can support the NHS to become a global research power house.
Make sure the UK is a world leader in tackling the rise of superbugs. The NHS should support a “Netflix” style subscription model for new antibiotics, driving a new wave of R&D for future antibiotics and developing smart incentives to pull in the research billions needed to discover them.
Implement a new Vaccines Strategy so that people of all ages are protected from preventable infections by having the vaccines which are recommended for them.
Prioritising patients and health security in the future UK – EU relationship.
As the UK leaves the European Union, the Government should prioritise building a new partnership that puts patients first and allows the UK to be a world leader in the delivery of new treatments.
The UK’s membership of the EU has shaped and enforced much of the scientific, regulatory and trade infrastructure for the life sciences sector.
Every month, 45 million packs of medicine move from the UK to the EU27, with 37 million packs moving the other way.
Sharing information on medicine safety, controlling infectious diseases and cross European clinical trial design have contributed to health security in the UK.
Collaboration on regulating medicines also means that UK patients can be amongst the first in the world to use new medicines.
The next Government should:
Secure a deal. Companies are doing everything in their power to prepare for the UK to leave the EU. However, some things – such as border delays – are outside of their control. Leaving the EU with a deal in place is the best way to ensure there is no disruption to the supply of medicines.
Cooperation on the regulation of medicines. The UK should seek a close relationship between the UK and EU on medicine regulation, with the UK having a meaningful contribution to the European Medicines Agency network of regulators.
Trade. The UK should build a relationship with the EU that maintains the free and frictionless trade of pharmaceutical supplies between the UK and EEA member states.
Access to talent. The UK should seek to negotiate an agreement with the EU that facilitates the ease of movement for highly-skilled talent in Life Sciences, building reciprocal arrangements that facilitate ease of movement for scientists, researchers and highly-skilled workers.
Science and innovation. Secure UK collaboration in Horizon Europe, with the UK having the ability to design and influence scientific research projects.
Building a thriving environment for medicine discovery so the UK can be the best place in the world to research and develop new medicines and vaccines.
The pharmaceutical industry is critical to the health of our population and the success of our economy. The sector invests £4.3 billion in R&D, more than any other sector in the UK, and employs 63,000 people.
The sector is fully behind the aspiration to boost R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, and up to 3% in the longer term. The next Government should reinforce a commitment to this target. Increasing investment in science will help provide the good quality jobs and innovation that will drive the future of the UK economy. Collaboration with industry will be essential to achieve this ambition.
The next Government should look to build on the excellence of the UK’s life science base and continue to be a world leader in the future by focusing on a broad range of policies to support the research and development of the next generation of medicines in the UK.
The next Government should:
Commit to boosting R&D investment in partnership with industry. Boosting investment in basic science should be accompanied by a strategy to work with industry on policies to reach the target of investing 2.4% of GDP in R&D by 2027.
Modernise the R&D tax credit and capital grant structure to encourage investment in UK R&D.
Create a new Life Sciences Skills Fund. Use unrecovered funds from the Apprenticeship Levy to create a Skills Fund which can help address crucial skills gaps for UK science in areas such as genomics, immunology, bioinformatics and chemoinformatics, and clinical pharmacology.
Maintain the UK’s status as a world leader in intellectual property (IP). Intellectual property protection is the basis for an innovation economy, and the next Government must commit to ‘gold standard’ IP protection to attract global investment.
Tackling Superbugs
The 5-year National Action Plan for Anti Microbial Resistance sets out an ambitious agenda for the UK to tackle AMR nationally and internationally.
The Plan sets targets to reduce the use of antibiotics in humans and to trial a new way of valuing and paying for antibiotics which encourages the appropriate use of these medicines. Industry supports the ambitions contained in this plan and is committed to addressing AMR.
The next Government should:
Ensure that the National Action Plan is delivered and centrally funded Ensure that the reimbursement pilot is delivered: successful delivery will stabilise the market, reward innovation, enable access to innovative antibiotics in the NHS and safeguard antibiotics for appropriate use
Maintain the UK’s global leadership role to tackle AMR and support for incentives to encourage research and development of new antibiotics
Work with industry to encourage research and development of new antimicrobials and vaccines, encourage and promote appropriate use and tackle the environmental impact of antibiotics.
