AstraZeneca

Debate between Lord Vallance of Balham and Lord Kakkar

Thursday 6th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Lord Vallance of Balham) (Lab)]

Clearly, I understand this area rather well. It is disappointing that the AstraZeneca deal fell through. The deal was first raised in 2020 and was then offered in 2024. Subsequent to that, AstraZeneca changed its mind on how much work it wanted to put into the UK, including reducing the R&D component, which meant that there was a reduction in the offer that came from the Government. I understand that there are a number of reasons why this particular deal fell through, but I also reassure noble Lords that there is a very active programme of attracting investment, including discussions with AstraZeneca which are ongoing on other matters.

[Lord Kakkar (CB)]

My Lords, I draw noble Lords’ attention to my registered interests as chairman of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research. Is the Minister content that His Majesty’s Government are doing enough to support global investment in UK life sciences, not only through fiscal measures but through their own investment in securing the infrastructure and capacity for clinical research in our country and the base for fundamental and translational research in our universities through funding for the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council? Is the Minister able to reassure us that these matters will be considered very carefully in any future comprehensive spending review?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his question. Yes, I am very aware of the need for funding in this area and for attracting external inward investment. The noble Lord may well know that a number of companies have been attracted to the UK recently, such as Eli Lilly, with a big deal of £279 million. Last week, Moderna opened its new facility in Harwell within two years. There is a lot going on in terms of inward investment, and the noble Lord is quite right to point out the importance of both NIHR and MRC funding as part of that process.

Specialised Research Units: Closures

Debate between Lord Vallance of Balham and Lord Kakkar

Monday 28th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

As the noble Lord may be aware, I have been very clear about the need for supporting basic curiosity-driven, investigator-led research, and I will remain resolute in that determination. Some of these new centres have specified areas, such as mental health and multi-morbidity, but there is a whole round which is unspecified, allowing for people to put forward ideas of their own for units of the future, which I believe will be important for the very reason the noble Lord says.

[Lord Kakkar (CB)]

My Lords, I draw noble Lords’ attention to my registered interests. The funding base to support science in some of our leading universities, including those that may host these centres in the future, has become dependent on cross-subsidy from overseas student income. Is the Minister content that, with the obligation for universities to play a greater role in supporting those centres that receive MRC status, the funding base for scientific research in our universities is sufficiently secure to make that possible?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

Universities have been under pressure, as the noble Lord knows, for a number of reasons, including student fees, overseas student numbers and questions about the full economic costs of research in addition to inflation. These are all important areas that will need to be looked at. It is worth remembering that, over the years, roughly one MRC unit per year has closed and a new one has started. This process is part of that continuing change, which I believe is important to make sure that we stay at the cutting edge. As part of that, the staff on the new wards will be fully paid. The principal investigator salary is the one that will have to be picked up in part by a host institution or by other grants coming in to provide support.

Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence

Debate between Lord Vallance of Balham and Lord Kakkar

Tuesday 15th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that important question. The convention does not apply to military matters, but the responsible AI in the military domain—the REAIM Forum, which the UK co-hosted in September this year—covers exactly those issues, which are incredibly important.

[Lord Kakkar (CB)]

My Lords, I draw attention to my registered interests. The Minister will be aware that the regulatory approaches to approving innovative medicines and to approving novel medical devices are quite different. With the introduction of AI to drive many of those devices, their impact on human health may be just as profound as administering a novel therapeutic. How do His Majesty’s Government propose to go about aligning the regulation of devices in the future when they are AI labelled?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

We are taking a sector-specific approach to AI regulation. On medicines, we announced last week the formation of the regulatory innovation office, which will look specifically at the question of AI in healthcare to try to bring together the different regulators and make sure that we have a clear system.

Horizon Europe

Debate between Lord Vallance of Balham and Lord Kakkar

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kakkar (CB)]

My Lords, I draw noble Lords’ attention to my registered interests. The Minister indicated that we have got off to a good start in 2024, but that is particularly in terms of applications for European Research Council funding. The start has been less promising for Horizon pillar 2 funding, which requires collaboration between businesses and academia. What action do His Majesty’s Government propose to take to ensure that those kinds of relationships can once again be established and that we have a more successful approach to achieving that funding?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The noble Lord is quite right that the numbers are looking more promising for 2024, particularly in the European Research Council mono-beneficiary schemes. In the collaborative and industry schemes, things still look fairly flat, although there are some examples of very good progress. In the European rail project, 61% in the most recent round had a UK participant and five out of the seven successful bids had UK participants, so there is some progress. We are doing a number of things: there is an increased communications campaign, the last one having led to a substantial increase of 64,000 hits on the UK Horizon website; there are roadshows, most recently in Birmingham and Glasgow and soon in Northern Ireland and Wales; there are pump priming grants, which have led to an ability to get money to work out how to make applications to Horizon programmes—I am pleased to say that of those people who received those grants and put in applications, 100% were eligible. Finally, European network programmes are being set up to link UK academic teams and industry to European teams in the most successful countries.