House of Lords hears evidence on life sciences and Brexit

The House of Lords is hearing from companies and regulators today on issues including the government’s life sciences strategy and Brexit’s impact on the industry.

Starting this morning, October 17, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee is taking evidence from GSK and AstraZeneca on the contribution large pharmaceutical companies can make to the strategy and the UK’s attractiveness for life sciences investment.

In August, LSIPR reported that the government had committed £160 million ($280.2 million) in funding to the life sciences after a review of the industry.

Professor Sir John Bell conducted the review after a government industrial strategy green paper, published in January, showed life sciences to be one of the UK’s five leading sectors.

After the committee hears from GSK and AstraZeneca, it will listen to three small and medium-sized enterprises—Randox Laboratories, Inhealthcare and Matoke Holdings—on the challenges smaller companies face in areas such as funding and innovation.

This will be followed by a discussion with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

They will be questioned on the possible impact that differences in regulations between the UK and the EU could have after Brexit “and whether regulators should do more to aid the uptake of innovative products by the National Health Service”.

According to the committee, questions will probably cover the companies’ overall impression of the life sciences strategy and whether there are any aspects of regulation that are “proving a block to the taking of science to innovation and commercialisation”.

The investment announced by the government will stretch out over four years and cover multiple projects such as the plan to establish medicines manufacturing innovation centres, to “accelerate the adoption of emerging and novel manufacturing technologies”.

In a recent article for LSIPR, Rachel Bradley of Penningtons Manches argued that if the UK government changes the rules for clinical trials after Brexit, the regimes in the UK and the EU will diverge and possibly make trials more complex and costly.

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