New Government Promises £160m More for Innovative Medicines Fund
The Conservative Party promised £34bn more funding for the NHS by 2023-24, 50,000 more nurses, 50 million more GP appointments per year, 6,000 more GPs, 6,000 more primary care professionals and 40 new hospitals, ahead of the general election.
There were other promises too affecting life sciences and healthcare, including:
- Providing an extra £160m by extending the Cancer Drugs Fund into an Innovative Medicines Fund so that doctors can use the most advanced, life-saving treatments for conditions such as cancer or autoimmune disease, or for children with other rare diseases.
- Focusing efforts on areas where the UK can generate a commanding lead in the industries of the future – life sciences, clean energy, space, design, computing, robotics and artificial intelligence.
- Investing in world-class computing and health data systems that can aid research, such as the ground-breaking genetic sequencing carried out at the UK Biobank, Genomics England and the new 'Accelerating the Detection of Disease' project, which has the potential to transform diagnosis and treatment.
- Improving the early diagnosis and treatment of all major conditions, including cancer through the roll-out of cancer diagnostic machines (MRI, CT and mammography screening machines) across 78 hospital trusts.
- Overhauling NHS screening and using new technology and mobile screening services to prevent ill health.
- Treating mental health with the same urgency as physical health.
- Unlocking long-term capital in pension funds to invest in and commercialise scientific discoveries, creating a vibrant science-based economy post-Brexit.
- Increasing the R&D tax credit rate to 13%.
- Committing to increasing domestic public R&D spending to meet the target of 2.4% of GDP being spent on R&D across the economy.
- Continuing to collaborate internationally and with the EU on scientific research, including Horizon.
- Introducing an NHS Visa so that qualified doctors, nurses and allied health professionals with a job offer from the NHS will be offered fast-track entry.
What's Next?
The Conservatives won a clear mandate in the general election. They made a number of pledges across life sciences and healthcare before the election. Now they are in government, let's see what happens next with the introduction of these.
We will be holding the annual PING (Pharmaceutical Industry Network Group) Conference on 3 June 2020, focusing on the UK's global leading life sciences areas: genomics, personalised medicine and artificial intelligence - areas being targeted by the government. We have a stellar line-up of speakers coming to speak who are at the forefront of the UK's success in this revolution.