The UK’s life sciences sector has been dealt a severe blow with MSD’s decision to ditch its under-construction £1bn research center in London. This move is part of a worrying trend, as other pharmaceutical giants signal their reluctance to invest in what they describe as an increasingly hostile market.
Adding to the concern, US drugmaker Eli Lilly has put its planned London “gateway lab” on hold, refusing to sign the lease until the commercial environment improves. The French firm Sanofi has also slammed the brakes on expanding its clinical trials, having already cut them by 50% in recent years. Sanofi’s UK market access chief, Paul Naish, bluntly stated that the UK is “not a good place to do the development work for medicines.”
The industry’s grievances center on the UK’s financial policies regarding new treatments. The proportion of healthcare spending on medicines is far below that of other major economies. Compounding the problem is a high “clawback rate” that requires drugmakers to pay back up to a third of their UK revenues, a figure the industry wants reduced to single digits to align with European norms.
Prominent figures are now sounding the alarm, warning that these are not isolated incidents. Sir John Bell, a renowned Oxford scientist, has cautioned that other major pharmaceutical companies are poised to follow suit and stop investing. The industry is demanding a coherent plan from the Treasury to make Britain an internationally competitive destination for drug development once more.
Pharma Exodus? £1bn Research Hub Scrapped as Giants Pause UK Investment
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