Change Or Risk Failure: UK Govt Panel Warning On Life Sciences Industrial Strategy
Executive Summary
The UK government's approach for delivering the much-vaunted Life Sciences Industrial Strategy is too complex and duplicative, a parliamentary committee has suggested. Instead a detailed plan should be developed with clear lines of authority, responsibility and accountability.
If the UK government is serious about implementing the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, it should make "sweeping" changes to simplify the initiative’s delivery, according to a report by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee. The government's approach towards implementing the strategy has so far been “wholly inadequate,” the report claimed.
The committee said it had identified "complicated arrangements" for the strategy’s implementation and a lack of clear authority and accountability, which raises questions about the government’s commitment to implementing the strategy.
The committee’s report, published on April 26, is in response to an inquiry initiated last year to examine whether the government has the necessary structures in place to support the life sciences sector, how the National Health Service can use procurement to stimulate innovation, and the content of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.
The NHS's commitment to the strategy has so far been incoherent, uncoordinated and ineffective" – House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
The committee said that all was not lost and that the government could still save the day by taking "prompt and vigorous action." Among other things, it recommends creating a single entity, namely the Life Sciences Governing Body, to oversee the implementation of the strategy, in place of the current Life Sciences Implementation Board and the Life Sciences Council.
The new entity should take the lead in drawing up an implementation plan, with clear milestones, timelines and criteria for success, and should report to a cabinet committee.
In addition, the committee recommends creating a new statutory body, the Office for Industrial Strategy (OfIS), to scrutinize the implementation of the wider industrial strategy. The OfIS should be accountable to parliament and report annually on progress made by each government department in implementing the industrial strategy, it says.
NHS Ignored
Although the Life Sciences Industry Strategy has helped secure the necessary commitments from stakeholders, the committee said that the central role that the National Health Service has in the life sciences sector means "only the government can take the lead in delivering" the strategy.
It criticized the government's failure to engage with the NHS effectively. "As a result, the NHS's commitment to the strategy has so far been incoherent, uncoordinated and ineffective," it said.
The committee believes the NHS does not currently have the capacity to "rise to the challenge" of implementing the strategy, and said that the current NHS structures "stifle innovation." Unless the NHS improves its ability to adopt and spread innovations, it would not be able to play a full role in the implementation of the strategy, and would endanger its success, the committee said.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry also recognized the pivotal role of the NHS in delivering the strategy. "The NHS is the heart of our sector and critical to its success: the strategy cannot succeed without its support," it said.
The ABPI regards the strategy as the "blueprint for the UK’s success in life sciences as we leave the EU" and said it wanted to "see the full implementation of the strategy to deliver on its aims."
At the ABPI's annual conference in London on April 27, Baroness Fairhead said the life sciences industry was at the heart of the UK's economy and that the Life Sciences Sector Deal published last year demonstrated the government’s commitment to delivering on the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy. (Also see "UK Industrial Strategy Offers ‘Substantial’ Life Science Investments Through New Sector Deal" - Pink Sheet, 27 Nov, 2017.)
Baroness Fairhead said the government would soon deliver a new export strategy, which would involve working closely with the Department for International Trade’s Life Sciences Organisation to deliver practical support to both domestic and global businesses who use the UK as a manufacturing and export base.
The Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, published on Aug. 30, 2017, includes recommendations on how the government might exploit the UK's existing strength in life sciences to increase the pace of economic growth in this sector. The strategy provides a wide-ranging view on many of the issues that underpin the life sciences ecosystem, including discovery and translational science, NHS collaboration, manufacturing and skills. It also challenges the sector to engage further with the opportunities in healthcare presented by new technology through the proposed Health Advanced Research Programme (HARP).
From the editors of Scrip Regulatory Affairs.