New funding to make UK “a world class environment for medical research”

The English government has announced a raft of initiatives to boost medical research in the NHS.

The chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown announced a series of measures which he said would make “the UK a world class environment for medical research, development and innovation, through a programme of investment and reforms that enable high quality and cost-effective medical advances to be discovered and developed quickly, cheaply, and reliably.”

The plans include implementing key recommendations made in the Department of Health's recent consultation document, Best Research for Best Health (www.doh.gov.uk). These include setting up a National Institute for Health Research designed to coordinate research across institutions already carrying out research within the broader NHS and to improve the coherence of publicly funded health research. Ten academic medical centres of excellence will be set up around the country and funding will be provided for 250 academic fellowships and 100 clinical lecture training opportunities each year.

The programme will also develop the capability of the NHS National IT System to recruit patients for clinical trials and gather data to support research on the health of the population and the effectiveness of health interventions. Further reforms will streamline regulatory procedures that currently hold back research. These will include the national roll out of model agreements to standardise procedures for approval and permission for research.

The secretary of state for health, Patricia Hewitt said: “The changes proposed are radical. However, we believe that they are essential to create a health research system in which the NHS supports outstanding individuals, working in world class facilities, conducting leading-edge research, focused on the needs of patients and the public.” Ms Hewitt and Mr Brown were speaking at a treasury conference on Advancing Enterprise last week.

Sir David Cooksey, chairman of the Industry Reference Group of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, a partnership of organisations working to establish the UK as a world leader in health research, said that the collaboration would increase investment in UK medical research and development involving the NHS by up to £1 billion ($1.7 billion; Euro 1.5 billion) per year in the medium to long term.

The government also announced that funding for stem cell research would double to £100m over the next two years and regulations will be streamlined to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, in response to a report from the UK Stem Cell Initiative, a group set up by the chancellor earlier this year.

The report, UK Stem Cell Initiative: Report & Recommendations, called for more government funding and better coordination to enable the UK to maintain and develop its position as one of the world leaders in stem cell research and development. It recommended that the government should provide increased funding over the ten years and set up public-private partnerships to coordinate and develop stem cell research and technology.

Sir John Pattison, chair of the initiative, said: “The UK should spend at least an additional £350 million over the next decade on stem cell research if we wish to maintain our international leadership in this area. It is vital that we maintain and increase the level of public funding.” The report called on the government to strengthen the infrastructure supporting stem cell research in the UK by consolidating the UK Stem Cell Bank and establishing centres of excellence.

The government accepted the recommendations in the report and said that it would support basic stem cell research and centres of excellence, the UK Stem Cell Bank, cell production facilities and clinical research in the NHS. It also agreed to work towards setting up a public-private consortium to use stem cells to enhance drug discovery and development.

UK Stem Cell Initiative: Report & Recommendations can be found at http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/uksci/