by Julia Kollewe on (#7129Q)
UK chancellor confident of Gulf trade deal, as she faces 20bn-plus hit to public finances from UK productivity downgradeSteve Bates, executive chairman of the Office for Life Sciences, said a good US deal" would quickly resolve" the issue of a lack of confidence of big pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and MSD in the UK, and its impact on investment decisions.Quizzed by MPs on the science committee, Bates, who took up his new job at OLS in September after running the BioIndustry Association for 13 years, said:So I think a good deal with the USA can quickly resolve it, is the simple answer for that.I'm saying that if the UK can get a fantastic domestic business environment allied to access to global markets, that's a fantastic base from which any companies would want to grow for the world.I think for brand new, innovative medicines, it's likely there will be some price increase.If you go back to 2015 the spend on medicines was about 12% [of total NHS spending] if you go back earlier, it was higher, it was about 14%. It's now about 9%. So there is a possibility of increasing percentage spend. Continue reading...