- Government plans to slash red tape to help speed up drug development
- Currently takes 12 years on average from creation in a lab to get to patients
- Reduced bureaucracy after Brexit means this could drop to eight years
- Promising treatments to be fast tracked so they can get to patients
Sophie Borland Health Editor For The Daily Mail
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New drugs could be available to patients on the NHS sooner under plans to cut red tape
Patients will be offered promising treatments for cancer and dementia far more quickly under Government plans to slash red-tape.
Ministers have promised to speed up the time it takes from a drug being developed in the lab, to being offered to patients by four years.
Currently it takes an average of 12 years from a drug being created to it eventually being given to patients on the NHS.
But proposals announced today to reduce bureaucracy will see this reduced to eight years.
The Government also claims that Brexit will help speed-up this process as the UK will be able to bypass EU red tape.
Under the existing system, drugs can only be given to patients once they have been rigorously checked by EU and NHS regulators.
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They have to undergo tests involving tens of thousands of patients spanning several years to prove they are effective.
Results are then scrutised by the European Medicines Agency – who decides on whether to give them a licence.
They are then assessed by NICE who considers whether they are cost-effective to be offered on the NHS.
The proposals will see a British group of scientists assessing new drugs before they have been approved by the EMA.
Health Minister Lord Prior said the report is a ‘strong basis to make the right decisions about how the health system can be adapted to meet the challenges of the future’
The fast track process proposed means it could take eight years instead of 12 to get drugs from the lab to patients. File photo
Any promising treatments will be put through a fast-tracked system at NICE so they can be offered to patients far more quickly.
The Government claims the UK will be a world leader in offering new drugs – currently the process is slower than in the US and other European countries.
Health Minister Lord Prior said: ‘We are determined to make the UK the best place in the world to develop new drugs and other products that can transform the health of patients.
‘The report provides us with a strong basis to make the right decisions about how the health system can be adapted to meet the challenges of the future, attract inward investment, grow the thriving life science industry and use innovation to improve patient outcomes and tackle the financial pressures on the NHS.’
Sir Hugh Taylor, former permanent secretary of the Department of Health who chaired the proposals said: ‘This ambitious plan will prepare the health system for an exciting era in medical innovation.
‘We’ve listened to the views of the NHS, patients, clinicians, the life sciences industries and academia – and it is clear we need to act now to make the most of the tidal wave of new drugs and technologies that are being developed.’
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