A unique agreement between the governments of the UK and the pharmaceutical industry will see the creation of at least one new clinical trails hub in Scotland and a programme to get newly discovered treatments to patients faster.

Around £400m is to be invested into the UK’s life sciences sector over the coming five years from the proceeds of the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicine Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG).

The arrangement creates a cap on how much the NHS spends on new medicines while supporting research and encouraging greater use of innovation.

Three quarters of the VPAG fund will be used to set up new Commercial Research Delivery Centres to attract clinical trials into the NHS and help more patients take part in advanced research – addressing the central recommendations of last year’s O’Shaughnessy review of commercial research.

A further 20% of the fund will go towards new sustainable manufacturing initiatives and the remaining 5% to examining how the processes for assessing the cost and clinical effectiveness of new medicines might be updated.

The investment fund is in addition to payments from industry based on medicines sales which, for the last decade, the Scottish government has ringfenced and paid out to NHS boards through the New Medicines Fund.

Last year the New Medicines Fund injected an additional £250m into NHS Scotland.

The VPAG investment programme has been welcomed by the Scottish government. Health Secretary Neil Gray said there will be benefits to the economy as well as patients:

“It’s more crucial than ever that patients in Scotland can safely access the most clinically and cost-effective medicines, as quickly as possible, and the VPAG Investment Programme will support our NHS to rapidly deliver truly innovative medicines and therapeutics to the people of Scotland. 

“There are also clear economic benefits with the life sciences industry, which is one of the growth sectors in the Scottish economy. I welcome the benefits that this type of public-private collaboration, through the VPAG Investment Programme, will bring in supporting growth of the life sciences industry in Scotland.”

There have been voluntary schemes for medicines pricing in different forms for the last 65 years.

Companies that do not join the voluntary scheme are instead placed into a statutory scheme, requiring them to pay back a percentage of their revenues from branded medicines.

There is no direct equivalent of the UK voluntary scheme in any other country.

Successive voluntary schemes have been negotiated with the UK government, on behalf of all four UK nations, by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).

ABPI Chief Executive, Richard Torbett, said the investment into life sciences will help achieve the economic growth ambitions of all four countries:

“The life science industry has the potential to deliver so much more for the UK – but to do this we need to fix the NHS, improve patient access to medicines and invest more in our critical science and regulatory infrastructure.

“This world-first investment programme puts industry money behind the governments’ vision to make better health and science a driver of economic growth.”

 

The sister company of Healthcare News Scotland, Ettrickburn, is pleased to support ABPI’s work in Scotland.

Read more: NHS receives extra cash from medicines scheme; Government explains cut in new medicines fund; Scotland’s life sciences thriving; New strategy to unlock genomic medicine

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