Drugs firms lose confidence in UK

In a survey of more than 100 UK-based pharmaceutical companies, three-quarters had little confidence in the current environment. While 1 per cent expect it to improve, 83 per cent expect further deterioration.

More than a third of companies (35 per cent) were expecting to reduce the level of investment in research and development, currently standing at nearly £4 billion a year, while investment in assets such as buildings, equipment, and so on is expected to decline by a similar amount (36 per cent).

The number of UK clinical trials is expected to drop at nearly half (46 per cent) of companies and the volume of manufacturing is forecast to drop by 42 per cent of those surveyed.

Almost all the companies surveyed, 97 per cent, said there is now an increasing level of uncertainty within the UK pharmaceutical market environment.

ABPI President Nigel Brooksby said, “The UK now uses fewer innovative medicines than the rest of Europe, and the government has broken the five-year agreement on pricing, made in 2005 – an agreement that provided that very stability on which our success largely depends.”

John Cridland, CBI Deputy Director General, said, “The pharmaceutical sector is one of the UK’s flagship industries. It directly employs some 70,000 people, is the leading exporter and accounts for a quarter of all industrial research and development.

“The industry is a bellwether for the UK’s ability to thrive as a value-added economy in a globalised world, and its lack of confidence in the UK business environment should be of deep concern to the government. The sector needs to be carefully nurtured and its contribution to the UK economy must not be jeopardised.”