Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to encourage collaboration between NHS Trusts and pharmaceutical companies to enhance cancer clinical trials.

The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with cancer, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.

We are incentivising clinical trials and strengthening collaboration between pharmaceutical companies and National Health Service trusts by streamlining processes and cutting set‑up times to 150 days by March 2026, ensuring the United Kingdom offers a faster, more competitive environment for delivering high‑quality research.

The Department funded National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) funds research and research infrastructure which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research. This includes Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres, co-funded by NIHR, Cancer Research UK, and the Little Princess Trust, which form a UK-wide network that brings together world leading laboratory and clinical researchers to deliver pioneering early phase cancer trials for adults and children. Additionally, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will introduce a 14-day assessment route for phase 1 trials, adopting an innovative stepwise approach, restoring a rapid pathway for the earliest testing of new medicines in people, a key draw for global pharmaceutical companies deciding where to base their research.

NHS England is delivering specific collaborative initiatives with industry such as the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP). The NHS CVLP is a platform that is speeding up access to clinical trials for cancer vaccines and immunotherapies for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer. The CVLP platform is designed to be company and clinical trial agnostic. Different companies have been involved in the CVLP and trials in the CVLP portfolio have included cancers such as head and neck cancer melanoma and colorectal cancer.

35 Commercial Research Delivery Centres (CRDCs), including primary care been established largely within NHS trusts. CRDCs will expand capacity, streamline set-up, and give patients faster access to innovative treatments and clinical trials, including those concerning cancer.