The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s (ABPI) annual report has shown signs of improvements in the UK’s clinical trial sector.
The report, Getting back on track: restoring the UK’s global position in industry clinical trials, showed that the UK’s global clinical trial rankings have remained unchanged since 2022.
The ABPI called on the government to ensure sustainable long-term recovery in UK clinical trial performance to speed up clinical trial approvals and set-up, expand UK capacity to deliver clinical trials and improve clinical trial performance visibility and accountability.
The data revealed a rise of 4.3% in industry clinical trials initiated in the UK per year, from 394 trials in 2021 to 411 in 2022, a 36% reduction in the time taken to set up clinical trials and an increase of 15% in annual recruitment to industry clinical trials in the UK.
However, the total number of industry clinical trials initiated in the UK still remains below the peak in 2015 of 690 clinical trials, while the annual recruitment to industry clinical trials in the UK still remains below the 58,048 participants recruited between 2017 and 2018.
The ABPI has recommended that the government should continue to prioritise existing measures from the government’s Life Science Vision, as well as the Lord O’Shaughnessy Review of commercial clinical trials in the UK.
The report has highlighted the measures that will have the biggest impact in the short-to-medium term and benefit patients quicker.
A PwC UK report commissioned by the ABPI showed that the Life Science Vision could reduce the burden of disease in the UK by 40%, raise £165m in additional revenue, generate £38m of additional cost savings for NHS England annually and create £68.1bn in additional GDP across three decades from increased industry investment in research and development.
Janet Valentine, executive director of innovation and research policy, ABPI, said that despite showing “signs of recovery… the UK is still ranked tenth globally as the location of choice for large commercial clinical trials”.
She added: “It’s therefore vital that the government maintains this momentum, taking further steps reversing the downward trend, to increase global confidence [in] UK life sciences.”