Novartis scraps drug trial in blow to UK life sciences ambitions
A Swiss pharmaceutical group has scrapped plans to conduct a major drug trial in the UK, damaging government efforts to showcase the country as an attractive destination for investment in life sciences after Brexit.
Three years ago Novartis’s decision to collaborate with the NHS on rolling out inclisiran, a twice-yearly injectable drug for lowering cholesterol, was announced to fanfare, after the UK’s slow take-up of innovative medicines compared with peers was criticised.
John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford university, said the setbacks with the inclisiran programme were “bad for patients, bad for Novartis, and bad for the health system”, but that the NHS could learn lessons.
The Department of Health and Social Care said NHS England and Novartis “continue to work closely together to roll out this treatment to those who need it”. It added that it was “committed to working with industry to develop cutting-edge medicines”.
NHS England said its “first-of-its-kind population health agreement” with Novartis remained in place and was “a pioneering approach to improving treatment for eligible patients with cardiovascular disease across the country”.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Hannah Kuchler
