The UK Government has announced a £600m ($764m) funding pot to create a new Health Data Research Service, reducing red tape for researchers.
Developed in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, the service will create a single, secure access point to national datasets. The funds will also support the fast-tracking of clinical trials to accelerate the development of novel therapies.
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The government hopes the funding will cut trial set-up time to 150 days by March 2026 – the latest data collected in 2022 found this set-up time exceeded 250 days. The government said this will be achieved by “cutting bureaucracy and standardising contracts” to avoid time spent on negotiations.
In May 2023, Lord James O’Shaughnessy published a review of the UK Clinical Trial sector, which found that the country had moved from fourth to tenth as a global contributor to clinical trials. The review highlighted 27 key recommendations to improve the country’s position on the global stage.
The clinical trial investment arrives five months after the UK Government laid out a new regulatory framework for clinical trials in parliament to improve the efficiency of trials. The overhaul removed duplicative requirements and embedded into law the combined review and notification scheme for some clinical trial initial applications and amendments.
Pharma executives welcome change
This announcement follows a request by pharma giant GSK, which asked the UK Government to provide more comprehensive access to national health records to support drug development, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Reacting to the 7 April government announcement, GSK’s CEO Emma Walmsley said: “We welcome the ambition and urgency of today’s announcements on health data and clinical trials. The UK has unique potential to bring health data securely together with an NHS system that recognises the value of innovation, to accelerate and deliver the next generation of medicines and vaccines for patients. This offers value to society and the economy. What matters now is execution at pace and we stand ready to support.”
Professor Cathie Sudlow, author of the “Sudlow Review: Uniting the UK’s Health Data: A Huge Opportunity for Society”, said: “It has the potential to be a game-changer, by accelerating secure, trustworthy, data-driven research to improve patient care and public health for the tens of millions of people in this country and beyond. The service should enable faster, more reliable access for approved researchers to the data needed to tackle society’s most pressing health research needs – to develop and test new approaches for preventing, diagnosing and treating health conditions such as cancer, dementia, heart disease, depression, arthritis and infectious outbreaks.”
The investment could make the UK a ‘global leader in clinical research’ according to Janet Valentine, executive director of innovation and research policy, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).
Valentine said: “The scale and ambition of the prime minister’s announcement today shows he understands the huge opportunity for the UK to be a global leader in clinical research, and that unlocking research access to health data and speeding up the set-up of clinical trials are fundamental to achieving that goal.”
Other calls make to UK Government
Last week at the ABPI Annual Conference 2025, the industry called on the UK Government to “resolve the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access, and growth (VPAG) crisis”. At the same conference, Health Secretary Wes Streeting pledged “quick action on VPAG frustration”, adding that his ten-year plan will address drug sale clawbacks, NICE regulation, and the abolition of NHS England.
