"The decrease in funding for the life sciences sector, in terms of NHS purchasing of medicines, started in 2015 and has continued since. It has not been a good position. We are reversing that now with the Life Sciences Sector Plan to make sure there is proper investment. Some £2 …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech
"My Lords, the decision by Merck, or MSD, not to progress its investment, with 126 jobs lost—I express my sympathy to those individuals—is part of a broader effort by MSD to optimise its resources. It announced in July that it would cut $3 billion per year by 2027 and that …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech
"There is no doubt that Brexit had an effect on the entire sector. It also had an effect on academia and led to us ending up with a very much reduced income from the Horizon Europe programme. There was a significant effect there. It is true that NHS uptake of …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech
"I thank my noble friend for her work over the past year as a Minister in two departments, which I think she did brilliantly. There are indeed other companies that are investing. In the same period, Moderna has invested £1 billion in the UK, and BioNTech has invested £2 billion …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech
"I thank the noble Lord for raising the VPAG scheme. The VPAG scheme, which was negotiated under the previous Government, turned out with a figure of 23%, which was completely unexpected on both sides. The industry entered the scheme jointly with government, negotiated it and that is the number it …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech
"I reiterate my point about VPAG: it ended up in an unexpected place. It was negotiated in good faith by the previous Government and the industry, and the result was not the one that anyone expected. We are negotiating to try to get that in the right place. We got …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech
"I have indeed tried to continue the brilliant work of the noble Lord on bringing together parts of government in this area; I met people from many different departments about this as recently as yesterday. We are joining up the life sciences sector right the way across government. On the …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech
"We should not be under any illusion: the US is the major powerhouse in pharmaceutical research and development and will remain that powerhouse. Despite some of the changes, there is enormous investment going into, in particular, private sector R&D in the US. However, the noble Baroness is right that there …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech
"The shortage of medicines is always a problem. We cannot have a situation where essential medicines are not available. That speaks to better understanding of supply chain resilience. The noble Baroness will be aware that supply chain resilience came to the fore very much over the past few years, when …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech
"I thank the noble Lord for that question. It is a point I agree with: this is about the overall economic picture as well as the health costs. It is something that we need to look at as we think about the way medicines are used in this country. I …..." Lord Vallance of Balham - View Speech