Dame Siobhain McDonagh

The King’s Speech set out this Government’s commitment to remove the barriers holding back Britain and to break through the failed status quo. Nowhere is that more urgently needed than in life sciences and medical innovation. Britain cannot become a world leader in life sciences while patients and researchers are trapped inside systems that move too slowly. This matters because behind every delayed trial and every missed opportunity are families running out of time. This country is uniquely placed to become a world leader in medical innovation. We have extraordinary scientists, extraordinary universities, and extraordinary clinicians. Our life sciences sector is one of the greatest strengths of the British economy. From pioneering NHS research to fast-growing British techbio companies such as Relation Therapeutics, the potential for this country to lead the world in medical innovation is enormous. The challenge we face is not whether we have the talent or the capability to lead but whether our institutions are capable of matching the urgency of patient need. Too often brilliance collides with a system that moves cautiously when it should move decisively. In few areas are the consequences of that slowness felt more acutely than in rare and aggressive cancers. Since losing my wonderful sister Margaret to glioblastoma —the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40—I have worked closely with clinicians and researchers searching for a cure. That work has included establishing a new glioblastoma drugs trial in her memory, which is now under way at University College London hospitals NHS foundation trust and showing encouraging signs. In doing so, I have seen at first hand how difficult our systems can make it for innovation. What struck me throughout that process was that, even with funding secured and research ready, and with patients searching for further options, progress still becomes bogged down in systems that move painfully slowly. Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive and deadly forms of cancer. At diagnosis, patients are told they have months left, not years. For those patients, delay is fatal. Lord O’Shaughnessy’s review into commercial trials found that countries such as Spain and Australia were consistently setting up trials more than two months faster than the UK. Too often, our clinical trials environment is still characterised by complexity, duplication and inertia, when it should be characterised by urgency. This is not a criticism of the brilliant people working within the NHS or our research institutions—far from it. Time and again, I have met exceptional clinicians and researchers working tirelessly to push boundaries and give patients more options, but I have also met clinicians who feel constrained by systems that are too slow to turn research into treatment for patients. Britain too often treats innovation as something to cautiously manage, rather than something to be urgently delivered. Lord O’Shaughnessy’s review warns that Britain risks losing its world-leading position unless we become faster, more agile and more ambitious, and the warning signs are already there, with the UK falling from fourth to 10th globally for commercial trials between 2017 and 2021. The countries that lead the world in medical innovation will increasingly lead the world economically too. The global race for investment, talent and scientific leadership is intensifying, and Britain should not simply aim to participate in that race; we should aim to lead it. This is why the NHS modernisation Bill announced in the King’s Speech matters. NHS modernisation cannot simply mean changing structures; it must mean building a system capable of getting innovation to patients faster. If we are truly to modernise the NHS and remove the barriers holding Britain back, innovation and clinical research must sit at the heart of that mission. Britain has the talent, the institutions and the scientific capability. Now we need a system capable of matching that ambition, so that it is our country that stands at the forefront of innovation when the next generation of medical breakthroughs are discovered and delivered. For the families facing terminal illness today, that progress cannot come quickly enough.