Hospitals with most patients on clinical trials to get extra money
Hospitals that conduct clinical trials and offer experimental drugs to the most patients will be given more government funding.
Health officials have also announced that patients will have improved access to clinical trials via the NHS app.
Clinical trials can take several years and involve testing an experimental drug or process on a small number of patients to determine its safety and effectiveness.
The trials may offer a potential treatment to patients with no other options, and this provides invaluable data to drug manufacturers.
Trials are an essential part of a drug's lifecycle and allow companies to learn how well their medicine works, any side effects it may have and any unexpected benefits.
Data subsequently inform regulators who decide whether to authorise a new medicine for widespread use. Officials then also determine if it is cost-efficient to purchase the drug.
But these processes can take decades from invention to authorisation, and, in the meantime, patients who may benefit from a new drug go without access.
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) stated on Monday that as part of the Government's 10-year health plan, the NHS will have more closely integrated access to the database of ongoing experiments.
DHSC officials have said that people will be able to search the NHS app for trials. It is hoped that in future, patients may receive notifications on their phone if they are a good fit for certain trials.
It comes as upgrades to the NHS app will allow millions more people to receive appointments, reminders and test results there.
Trusts are set to be graded on how well they perform clinical trials, and their ability to get patients enrolled, with the use of new league tables.
It is understood that trusts performing the best will be prioritised for further government investment.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has previously said that NHS managers who perform poorly in such league tables would face the sack.
On Sunday, he said: 'The UK has been at the forefront of scientific and medical discovery throughout our history. One country will lead the charge in the emerging revolution in life sciences, and why shouldn't it be Britain?
'The 10-year plan for health will marry the genius of our country's leading scientific minds, with the care and compassion of our health service, to put NHS patients at the front of the queue for new cutting-edge treatments.
'The NHS app will become the digital front door to the NHS, and enable all of us as citizens to play our part in developing the medicines of the future.'
Covid-19 vaccine trials
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, the Government launched the NHS Covid-19 Vaccine Research Registry, which saw more than 100,000 Britons volunteer for trials of experimental jabs in a bid to speed up the discovery and testing of potential vaccines.
This allowed people to be vaccinated before the mass rollout, and data from their inoculation and recovery were vital in finding which jabs performed best.
Mr Streeting said: 'The British people showed they were willing to be part of finding the vaccine for Covid, so why not do it again to cure cancer and dementia?
'By slashing through red tape and making it easier for patients to take part, reforms in our 10-year plan will grow our life sciences sector, generate new funds for the NHS to reinvest in front-line care and benefit patients through better medicines.'
This Covid-19 clinical trial initiative was spearheaded by Dame Kate Bingham, the then-head of the vaccine task force, who had extensive experience in clinical trials and drug discovery.
The former vaccine tsar told The Telegraph that this latest step by DHSC and the NHS could have a huge economic benefit for the UK.
She said: 'This is a welcome step in supercharging the UK's national clinical trials capabilities. With universal NHS numbers and digital reach via the NHS app, the UK is uniquely positioned to lead.
'Theoretically, it has the potential to massively accelerate the growth of the UK life sciences sector.'
Dame Kate petitioned for the vast NHS database of patient data to be better leveraged after the pandemic, following the success of the vaccine initiative.
But she warned that the entire plan could be undermined by penny-pinching in Whitehall.
The UK pays poorly for new medications compared to other markets, she said, and therefore, drug manufacturers will likely prefer to run trials in countries that are willing to spend more money.
This could result in British patients never being offered experimental drugs in the first place, as trials are run abroad.
Dame Kate, who is also the managing partner of DV Health Investors, told The Telegraph: 'There is a risk that pharma companies will not run clinical trials on innovative drugs here in the UK if there is no prospect of patients ever getting access to those drugs.
'They will question whether it is ethical to do so. The UK pays some of the world's lowest prices for branded medicines, and under VPAG – where companies must pay back a percentage of branded drug revenues [this year a rebate of 23 per cent], the model risks making the UK commercially untenable.'
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