NHS TRIALS HELPED BEAT COVID, MILLIONS CAN DO THE SAME AGAINST CANCER AND DEMENTIA
The first clinical trial is believed to have been carried out in 1747, when a Scottish doctor treated patients on a ship with scurvy using a range of remedies. Those told to eat citrus fruits recovered – proving that Vitamin C could cure the disease.
From those simple observations to the mass, complex and modern clinical studies of today, there are now hundreds of thousands of patients every year in the UK taking part in trials to help discover new life-changing treatments so they can be used to transform care on the NHS frontline.
But, in recent years, companies around the world have slowed their investment in the UK. It takes around 150 days longer to set up a clinical trial here than it does in Spain.
This sluggish progress over the past decade matches the sluggish growth of our economy over the same period.
Just as this Government is acting to remove the hurdles in our planning system and housing and energy development, we will make it simpler to discover new medical treatments in this country too.
Soon, we will launch our 10 Year Health Plan. It will turbocharge clinical research and deliver the most ambitious reduction in trial set-up times in British history, as we seek to rebuild our country’s global status as the epicentre of research.
As the Prime Minister set out in April, this Government and the Wellcome Trust will invest up to £600m to create a new health data research service and by next year, we are aiming to slash unnecessary burdens on those running trials and cut the time taken to set up at trial by 100 days.
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We will make life sciences a business-as-usual part of what hospitals do, not a “nice-to-have” in a small minority.
A thriving life sciences industry in Britain will boost growth, generate income for the NHS to reinvest in patient care, and uncover the cutting-edge treatments of the future, helping deliver our plan for change. I see this as mission critical.
That’s why we will introduce public reporting regarding progress on clinical trials for NHS trusts and healthcare providers, so that I, investors, and patients know where we should be investing our time and money.
Under the plan, millions of people will be able to access the latest clinical trials more easily via the NHS app, so finding relevant trials that people will be eligible for will be far more straightforward.
Over time, the service will evolve to offer tailored notifications to your phone based on your health data, matching you with studies that could make a real difference to your condition and save others.
This isn’t just a technical upgrade – it’s about democratising access to cutting-edge treatments.
During the Covid pandemic, more than half a million of us volunteered to help develop the vaccine that gave us back our lives, liberty, and livelihoods.
It demonstrated the best of the British spirit. And if we did it for Covid, why wouldn’t Brits want to come forward to cure cancer or defeat dementia?
If we can marry our country’s brightest scientific and research minds, with the single payer health service and all the untapped potential it offers, then Britain could be a powerhouse for life sciences and the birthplace of 21st century medicine.
2025-06-16T05:36:33Z