GovWire

A raft of new UK-created therapies for cancer will be trialled in the UK furthering the nations life sciences industry as one of the great drivers of economic growth.

New partnerships backed by public and private sector investment will trial new ways to tackle cancer and other life-threatening diseases with faster diagnoses and better treatments, deploying innovative technologies and approaches .

This could unleash a raft of new medical tech products onto the global market, includingmore flexible medical scanners and an AI tool to help spot lung cancer sooner. The potential of these breakthrough technologies to give new hope to patients, and to become commercial successes, is a demonstration of this Governments ambitions for the UKs R&D base and the NHS to work hand-in-hand with the private sector, to bring the latest high-tech innovations into daily use across the health service as part of the governments wider mission to reform the NHS.

Medical technologies like these not only offer the hope of longer, healthier lives to people living with diseases like cancer, but also drive economic growth through the UKs world leading life sciences industry. Their adoption is also critical to building an NHS that is match-fit for the future, as emphasised in the findings of the recent Darzi Review. This independent report laid bare the current problems facing the NHS, including the fact that the cancer survival rates in England are lagging far behind other countries. Todays package of investment will play a crucial role in the governments plans to address these challenges and rebuild and reform the NHS, which will prioritise the adoption of innovative technologies and approaches and identify ways to do things differently across the health service in order to provide a better service for patients.

It comes as UK Research and Innovation announces a 118 million fund that will create five new hubs across the country, from Glasgow to Bristol, to help develop new health technologies. The funding will be split between Government funding and partner support inviting business to help the mission to kickstart the economy and build an NHS fit for the future. The Hubs will work in intimate partnership with the private sector with experts at UCL developing scanners to improve cancer surgery, delivering their research together with both large MedTech multinationals and British start-ups, for example.

The International Investment Summit, taking place in a matter of days, will see Government form a new partnership with business to grow our economy through more high quality, long-term investment and innovation.

Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said:

Cancer is a disease that has brought pain, misery and heartbreak to every family in the country, including my own. But through Government working in partnership with the NHS, researchers, and business, we can harness science and innovation to bring the detection and treatment of this horrendous disease firmly in to the 21stcentury, keeping more families together for longer.

The UKs scientists, researchers and captains of industry have brilliant ideas that arent just going to boost our health theyll boost our economy too, helping to build a virtuous circle for more investment in both health and research which will ultimately drive up living standards.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said:

As a cancer survivor, I know how vital an early cancer diagnosis and the latest treatments are. This investment will not only save lives, but also secure Britains status as a powerhouse for life sciences and medical technology.

When we combine the care of the NHS and the genius of our countrys leading scientific minds, we can develop life changing treatments for patients and help get Britains economy booming.

The Science Secretary will be speaking to business leaders across the life sciences sector, encouraging a raft of investment into the UK for drug development, clinical trials and MedTech production.

Already contributing 108 billion to the UK economy, the life sciences industry drove 800 million in foreign direct investment into the UK in 2023, and supports around 300,000 jobs up and down the country.

Todays announcements showcase the impact that could potentially be made to cancer, as well as other diseases, through ensuring the Government and NHS works hand in hand with life sciences research institutions and industry, to drive the development of new treatments and diagnostics.

New medical tech and treatments that could eventually be brought to market include:

• Developing cheaper, more easily usable scanners that will help surgeons detect early signs of cancers and remove tumours with greater success. These tools could be more readily available than those currently in use across the NHS.
• Speeding up the time required to bring new drugs to market by testing micro-dosing - an approach which sees a tiny amount of a drug delivered to a small part of the body. This work could provide a new
• pathway for clinically trialling new treatments for lung infection and inflammation much faster and cheaper than at present.
• Driving forward personalised treatments for cancer patients who are receiving immunotherapy - using their own immune system to identify and attack cancer cells. New ways of monitoring patients could allow a real-time view of how a therapy is working, offering the opportunity to tweak it to the patients needs.
• Training AI models to be used in quickly and accurately diagnosing cancer through a new cross-NHS data network that researchers can access.

The life sciences sector is one of the crown jewels of the British economy exemplified by the work by Oxford University and AstraZeneca that produced the worlds first Covid-19 vaccine, as well as the Governments 10-year partnership with Moderna to anchor the production of millions of lifesaving vaccines here in the UK.

The MedTech sector specifically is also booming, supporting more than 138,000 jobs and exporting more than 5.6 billion in products annually. And there are life sciences clusters right across the UK that provide high-skill, high-wage jobs from Merseyside to the North East.

Support for todays announcements:

Commenting on MANIFEST, Professor Samra Turajlic, project lead, Clinical Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, and Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:

In the last ten years we have made huge progress in the treatment of cancer with immunotherapy, but we are still underserving many patients due to treatment failure and side effects. We have a unique opportunity in the UK, especially given the NHS, to address this challenge.

We are hugely excited to work together with such a large group of clinicians, patients and our industry partners, each with unique experiences and expertise. Research on this scale can get us one step closer to better tests in the clinic, but also fuel more discoveries regarding cancer immunology and new therapies. Ultimately, we want to speed up the delivery of personalised medicine for a disease that affects huge numbers of people across the UK every year.

Also commenting on MANIFEST, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, Michelle Mitchell, added:

The Francis Crick Institute is carrying out world-leading research with the backing of Cancer Research UK, the MRC and the Wellcome Trust. Further funding from the UK Government to support promising immunotherapy research at the Institute is a welcome boost towards kinder, more personalised treatments for cancer. Its crucial for the UKs economic wellbeing, as well as its health, for the UK Government to be ambitious in funding world-class cancer research.

Commenting on the UKRI Healthcare Research and Partnership Hubs, EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Charlotte Deane said:

The five new hubs bring together a wealth of expertise from across academia, industry and charities to improve population health, transform disease prediction and diagnosis, and accelerate the development of new interventions.

They represent an exciting range of adventurous techniques and approaches that have great potential to improve the lives of millions of people here in the UK and across the world.

Commenting on the pathology data network, Vin Diwakar, National Director of Transformation at NHS England said:

The investment in AI pathology represents new hope in helping us to treat and cure a range of diseases. By supporting secure access to this unique dataset, we can help researchers to learn more about various conditions, including cancer, so that they can both spot how to prevent disease and also find the next generation of treatments and cures faster.

The NHS is globally unique in holding data for the entire population. This makes the test re

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