Merck Research Site

Lord Lansley Excerpts

Thursday 11th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for her work over the past year as a Minister in two departments, which I think she did brilliantly. There are indeed other companies that are investing. In the same period, Moderna has invested £1 billion in the UK, and BioNTech has invested £2 billion in the UK. There is significant growth going on in Isomorphic Labs, one of the latest companies doing AI drug design. There are numerous examples of companies that are investing. We have a Life Sciences Sector Plan that has been welcomed by industry, and we know that as part of that the commercial environment for medicines in the UK needs to be improved.

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, the UK is potentially the best location for life sciences investment in Europe, but it is undermined at present by the lack of agreement over the rebate under the voluntary pricing and access agreement. Will the Minister and the Government rapidly enter into mediation with the industry so that this can be resolved?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I reiterate my point about VPAG: it ended up in an unexpected place. It was negotiated in good faith by the previous Government and the industry, and the result was not the one that anyone expected. We are negotiating to try to get that in the right place. We got very close to a deal. That is clearly now complicated by a number of factors, including the prospect of tariffs from the US. We continue to talk to the industry regularly on all these matters.