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Medical Research

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Hayman is absolutely right: we will not progress in health research without a strong science base. The science base is essential, but is it sufficient? Is a good science base enough to ensure that a good idea in the laboratory becomes a good idea in the market? The answer is no. It seems to me that there are three additional essential elements that we need to add to our science base. First, an outward-looking and open economy, secondly, a well regulated medical sector, and, finally, a well developed knowledge transfer system. Let me briefly explore each of these elements, because without them our science base could become an ivory tower. An outward-looking and open economy is essential because research is international—it knows no boundaries—and so it does not matter where it is done as long as we benefit from it. It is a part of globalisation that we should welcome, and welcome the people that go with it. Critics of this policy—and there are many of them—argue that this openness sets off a race to the bottom. They argue that competition from emerging economies will constantly undercut our pay and conditions. But, in truth, we are learning that the opposite is true. Openness will help us win the race to the top—and winning the race to the top means giving up the low standards and old technologies which hold us back. This is why we need an open and welcoming economy in addition to our science base. My noble friend Lady Hayman also spoke of sensitive regulation being an essential addition to our science base. I agree. As she said, without this, there will be less public support, but we also need public support because the medical records, tissues and tests used for research belong to the public.  The public must see public benefit. Biobank, and the way it has been set up, licensed and regulated, certainly has public support, but there are further questions. What are the property rights over tissues and embryos? These are ethical as well as commercial considerations, but regulators must put people in a position of control over their tissues if that is what they want. Regulation also affects the researchers. In a debate on 27 April, my noble friend Lord Winston gave the rather worrying example of stem cell researchers giving up their work because regulators gave the impression that it was in some way disreputable and required extra surveillance. I hope the Minister will take note of that. Then there is the regulation of the commercialisation of medical research. When researchers become entrepreneurs, the regulatory balance is difficult. When I was in the United States recently, knowing that this debate was coming up, I asked some venture capitalists whom I knew from my previous life in business where the smart money was going in medical research. Diagnostics, was the answer. They told me that there is a new generation of tests which represents some of the first fruits of the long-anticipated genome revolution. Those tests could pave the way to personalised medicine and because of this, there could be—in their words—pharmaceutical-like profit margins. Fortunately, we have NICE in Britain to assess the value of these things. This is an important part of the regulatory process. My final point concerns knowledge transfer networks. A top-class science base will remain a top-class ivory tower unless it leads to top-class products and companies. Science does not easily transform into a business. It is to the credit of the Government and my noble friend the Minister that over the years they have actively set up knowledge transfer networks to achieve this. I declare an interest as the honorary chairman of one such knowledge transfer network. Knowledge transfer networks speed up innovation, and the development of the research is not just left to chance. Healthcare workers and scientists add value to each other by each providing the answer to the others’ needs. But these answers frequently lie outside a single source of knowledge; to make progress and to succeed in innovation today, you need a matrix of information. My noble friend Lady Hayman described this, speaking about IT, social science and, I think, record players. It is collaboration between different disciplines that creates innovation. Public policy cannot create innovation in healthcare, but it can ensure that the ingredients are there. With the continuing investment in our science base, our open policy towards trade and science, our careful and thoughtful approach to commercial and ethical regulation and our understanding and encouragement of the networks by which science becomes healthcare, we can become a global hub for collaborative innovation and research and development in healthcare—a worthwhile and achievable ambition for our country.