Merck Research Site

Baroness Neville-Rolfe Excerpts

Thursday 11th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

We should not be under any illusion: the US is the major powerhouse in pharmaceutical research and development and will remain that powerhouse. Despite some of the changes, there is enormous investment going into, in particular, private sector R&D in the US. However, the noble Baroness is right that there are changes in public sector funding. As I hope she will be aware, we launched a £112 million global talent scheme, with £54 million coming from the Government and the rest from the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering, looking for global talent to get to the UK. We believe this is a time when we can attract global talent into our leading universities and biotech scene.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

When I visited the excellent Chase Farm Hospital last year, I talked to the pharmacy. It had a lot of shortages of particular medicines. I have experienced the same in my local pharmacy. Is this a problem that the Minister is concerned about?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The shortage of medicines is always a problem. We cannot have a situation where essential medicines are not available. That speaks to better understanding of supply chain resilience. The noble Baroness will be aware that supply chain resilience came to the fore very much over the past few years, when it was obvious that most countries did not understand their supply chains. A lot of work has been done on understanding supply chains and making sure there is resilience for essential medicines. There are opportunities there in terms of how the UK can work more closely with Europe to ensure that we get better supply chain resilience.