Branded Medicines Voluntary Scheme and the Life Sciences Vision

Karin Smyth Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd May 2023 Westminster Hall

[Karin Smyth (Bristol South) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Sharma. I understand that Parliament is technically in recess, but here we are working hard to the last on this very important debate. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Anne Marie Morris) for securing it. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) that she used her expert knowledge to provide a detailed outline of the issues.

As the hon. Lady said, the scheme has a number of objectives, including improving patient access to medicines, getting the best value and most effective medicines introduced more quickly, and supporting innovation in a successful life sciences industry here in the UK. It is a complex area, balancing what often seem to be competing priorities around keeping costs low and getting a fair return for the industry. Ultimately, we need to remember that this debate is about people: our constituents, ourselves and families. People expect to be treated with the best medication available and for the NHS to provide good value to the taxpayer.

Last week the Minister outlined that

“we are seeking a mutually beneficial voluntary scheme that supports patient outcomes, a strong life sciences industry and a financially sustainable NHS.”—[Official Report, 25 April 2023; Vol. 731, c. 584.]

I hope he will today update us on where that work has got to, and on whether the Government are any closer to a solution. That would be most welcome, as other Members have outlined.

I will take the objectives that the Minister outlined one by one. Supporting patient outcomes is vital; we all want the best for our constituents. There are a number of heartbreaking cases where people have not been able to get the drugs they need. Many colleagues have raised those cases in this place and have become experts on behalf of their constituents. It is a devastating issue for many people. I think that people do understand that this is complex and difficult, particularly for rare diseases. Although we recognise the need for commercial confidentiality, people need greater empowerment. The taxpayers who fund our system need to understand the transparency and accountability associated with those agreements.

The second issue that the Minister outlined is the life science industry, which is crucial to our economy. It is disappointing, as the hon. Member for Newton Abbot outlined, that there is a decrease in our share of global investment in R&D. It is worrying that companies are leaving the UK to seek other markets. We are all hugely grateful to the sector that got us through the pandemic. We all learned a lot more about the sector in that period, but it was able to do that because of previous, sustained, long-term investment. That is where we need to get back to.

We have consistently led in the field of life sciences research and development, an industry that employs more than 260,000 people across more than 6,000 businesses and generates a huge annual turnover. We need it to thrive. However, the Government are not serious about science. Due to their lack of investment and strategy, we are not converting our rich science base into the high-skill, high-wage, high-productivity economy that we all want to see. There is not a detailed plan to get us to where we need to be.

The Labour party is committed to harnessing the potential of the sector. Investment and reform of research and funding is key to improving outcomes. At the centre of our science policy is a target to raise total investment in R&D to 3% of GDP by 2030. Targeting that investment will help us to develop the treatments and innovations we need for the future. It will be part of our wider industrial strategy to build the high-wage, high-growth and more productive economy that we want to see.

The third point the Minister made was about a financially sustainable NHS. The current backlogs of care and the workforce shortages that have put the NHS under increasing operational and financial pressure are immense. Those pressures will only be exacerbated by maintaining an environment that fails to encourage much-needed innovation. Again, there are clear lessons to be learned from the pandemic, but in a stretched system that had over 4 million people waiting for treatment before the pandemic, research and clinical trials can become less of a focus. They are people-intense—I have been part of them in a previous role—and require focus. Support for the wider health sector is crucial in helping that move along.

Investment in health and futureproofing our system is good not only for patients, the public and the life science sector but the wider economy. The cost of ill health is substantial, and we have much evidence of the link between the health of the nation and societal wellbeing.

In conclusion, we are seeing growing concern about the current scheme. Over the past year, the supply of branded generics in particular has been dented by steep increases—linked to high price inflation—in VPAS payments. It is impacting on shortages—we look forward to hearing the Minister’s comments on that—and the supply of medications. Issues in the scheme are made evident when major companies leave it. It would be helpful to hear from the Minister what action he has taken to support the life sciences industry in this country, and to give clarity and support, which we would all like to see, to those undertaking research into potentially life-saving drugs. We want support to be given to the key industries, particularly in places such as Cambridge, as outlined by my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge, but also in all our constituencies across the country. It is vital that the Government get that plan in place.