AstraZeneca

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

Yes, I am happy to do so. The first was the restructuring of the deal because of the AstraZeneca decision to put less into R&D, which meant that there was a proportionate decrease in the state funding, which I think most people would think would be an appropriate position in a deal. Secondly, I think that it has expressed concerns about the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access programme. It was also concerned about NICE’s decision to refuse approval for its recent drug Enhertu. But I think noble Lords would agree that it is not appropriate for the Government to link decisions on individual drugs to investment in other parts of the system.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, would the Minister confirm that the chief executive of AstraZeneca has said that it was a purely commercial decision and that a potential grant of £80 million should not be significant to a company that has made a profit of nearly £9 billion and increased its profits by 38% in the last year? Surely it is the company’s responsibility, unlike what has been suggested by the unfortunate spokesperson for the Opposition?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I think it is undoubtedly a commercial decision. Having been head of R&D for a multinational pharmaceutical company, I know exactly how these decisions are made. It will have been a commercial decision as to where it needs to make the right investments for its vaccine manufacturing. I think the small change in the deal from the UK Government was probably a minor part in the overall decision-making.

Deafblindness: Emerging Technologies

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 27th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I suppose the structural problem overall is that those who find themselves disabled, with whatever disability, are in a very small group, and the smaller the group, the more difficult it is for manufacturers of equipment to provide for them in a commercially viable way. The Government have a number of levers they can pull in this space: first, by commissioning research directly; secondly, by the public sector procurement programme—we spend on average £1.5 billion every year on procuring ATech; and, finally, by working with partner organisations, such as UKRI and Innovate UK, to seed and fund emerging technology in the ATech space.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

Is the Minister aware that the excellent “Strictly Come Dancing” winner, Rose Ayling-Ellis, who is herself deaf, has proposed that BSL lessons be given to everyone freely? What is the Government’s response?

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I very much enjoyed the interview on the radio today to which the noble Lord refers. The British Sign Language Advisory Board has been established to help advise the Government on the implementation of the British Sign Language Act 2022, which legally recognises BSL as a language of England, Wales and Scotland. It is important to note here that the BSL board has a reserved place for a deafblind person, and an additional member of the board is deaf- blind. We look forward to receiving and acting on its advice in this space.

Animal Torture: Online Videos

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 27th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I certainly agree that there is a problem. I am afraid that over the course of a year, the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition documented about 5,500 individual links to videos containing animal cruelty on the major platforms—YouTube, Facebook and TikTok—but globally the number of views of those incidents exceeded 5 billion. So I agree that there is a problem but I do not accept that the solution to it is a radical change to the Online Safety Bill, as was debated in Committee. I am open to working with my colleagues in Defra on what a more effective solution might be.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

Is the Minister aware that he is very lucky that my almost namesake, the noble Baroness, Lady Fookes, is not in the House today, otherwise he would be in dead trouble?

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I am grateful for it.