Almost half of Brits think the Government is doing too little to encourage development of new medicines in the UK
25th January: Recent YouGov polling commissioned by clinical trials startup Lindus Health has found that 47% of Brits want the Government to be doing more to drive the production of new medicines.
The research also found that numbers were highest amongst younger people (56% of 18 - 24-year-olds) and Labour voters (65%), but almost 40% of Conservative voters agreed that the Government needs to do more in new drug development.
In November 2023, the Government published their response to the final report of the O’Shaughnessy Review looking into Commercial Clinical Trials in the UK, which found clinical trial set-up and approval processes in the UK to be “slow and bureaucratic, especially compared to other countries.”
Other issues identified in the review include:
- Lack of transparency and data about commercial clinical trials activity in the UK,
- Lack of accountability at every level for underperformance in clinical trials,
- Lack of incentives for doctors, nurses and NHS organisations to take part in commercially-funded research,
- Low profile for clinical trials amongst the public, and
- A failure to take advantage of the NHS’ “considerable” data assets.
Michael Young, CEO of Lindus Health said: “With the current barriers to bringing a drug from the clinic to the market, it is no surprise that almost half of the UK thinks that the Government is not doing enough to advance new drug development.
“However, with the O'Shaughnessy report laying out an ambitious blueprint for improving the clinical trial infrastructure in the UK, and with the Government’s response, I hope that we will begin to see some big changes - as without it, much-needed therapies will continue to be hindered.”
About Lindus Health
Lindus Health is a London-based start-up launched in 2021, that runs clinical trials radically times faster than the industry standard – bringing ground-breaking treatments to patients more quickly.
Clinical trials are the biggest bottleneck to advances in healthcare and by removing this constraint we aim to improve health for everyone. Lindus does this by using its pioneering industry-first platform that can manage a trial from start to finish.
Lindus Health has to date delivered more than 80 trials across the UK, US and Europe to tackle a range of conditions including diabetes, asthma, acne, social anxiety, major depressive disorder, hypertension, chronic fatigue syndrome and insomnia.
The company was named after James Lind, who pioneered the first clinical trial and treatment for scurvy, and co-founded by Michael Young, a former No 10 Special Adviser on Life Sciences, and Meri Beckwith, a former Venture Capitalist focused on biotech. The company has raised $6m from investors including Firstminute Capital, Peter Thiel, Presight Capital, Seedcamp, Hambro Perks, Amino Collective and Calm/Storm.
