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Medical Research

My Lords, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, said, one of the UK’s greatest assets is its science base. Much of the credit has to go to the noble Lord, Lord Sainsbury, for his unstinting support for the sector. Research in healthcare and medicine is the jewel in that crown. Since the discovery of DNA in Cambridge more than half a century ago, our scientists have redefined modern medicine. The UK today has tremendous strength in research and development across the whole health sector. We all benefit from health research, and today there is tremendous value to the economy from investment in health R&D. Our pharmaceutical industry alone generates a trade surplus of £3.75 billion each year. In his Budget, the Chancellor announced combining the R&D spend managed by the Medical Research Council, the Office of Science and Innovation and those of the Department of Health. I, too, welcome that bold step. This has created a dedicated, ring-fenced annual fund of more than £1 billion for health R&D. Sir David Cooksey’s review does not have much time. Perhaps I could make a few suggestions. Obviously the new funding mechanism will have to fit into the nation’s health priorities and science objectives. It will have to ensure key economic objectives: to produce high quality translational health research and deliver real economic as well as health benefits from the science base. I firmly believe that funding should continue to be awarded on the basis of excellence across the whole spectrum of health, from basic to clinical to public health. We must maintain and enhance our skill base covering the whole range of science, engineering and technology, all of which is employed in supporting the nation’s healthcare. I do not think that we should underestimate how long it will take for scientific breakthroughs to become practical medical interventions. It often takes decades. I urge researchers to be patient. We must not raise false public expectations that fundamental research will rapidly produce miracle cures. Also, I do know think that the crucial role of technology and innovation has been appreciated. Only now are we fully recognising the importance of innovation. I am pleased to see that after more than a decade the Office of Science and Technology has become the Office of Science and Innovation. We spend some £3 billion a year on university research and only £100 million on encouraging the exploitation of that research in the form of innovation and knowledge transfer. Is it not time to establish a technology and innovation council to join the ranks of the research councils to be specifically charged with fostering technology transfer? I have been arguing the case for such a council for more than a decade. After a long gestation now is the time for it to be born. We must step up our innovation effort with an institutional voice charged with making it happen. You only have to watch an episode of the wonderful US drama series ““ER”” to realise the amount of technology being used in modern healthcare. While ““ER”” is a work of fiction, a weighty work of fact was produced by my noble friend Lord Warner in November 2004, the report of the health industry’s taskforce. The taskforce defined the nature of the healthcare industry as an exciting, fast-growing sector, and went on to identify the opportunities for the United Kingdom. What are these healthcare industries? They are the manufacturers of all the products used in the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring or treatment of human illness or handicap. They have grown out of other industries, such as engineering, informatics and biotechnology, which produce a vast array of devices, equipment and consumables for the health sector: from simple plasters and syringes to wheelchairs, from diagnostic test kits for blood transfusions to filtration devices, from radiotherapy machines to defibrillators and pacemakers, from anaesthetic machines and monitors to the highest of high technology scanners—all regulated under the European Medical Devices Directive. More than half the UK population has contact with a medical device in any one day. It is a vast and fast-growing market: worldwide, it is already more than $170 billion. The UK market is about £6 billion, £4.5 billion of which is supplied by UK manufacturers who also export some £3 billion of healthcare products. The Cooksey review could make a significant contribution to stimulating this industry. Since the creation of MRC Technology, the UK Clinical Research Collaboration and the new NHS R&D strategy, set out in ““Best research for best health””, there is much to be done. I declare a personal interest. All my academic life, I have been working at the science, engineering and technology end of the spectrum, transferring knowledge from university research bases to companies, working with NHS hospitals and medical faculties. As the director of the Warwick Manufacturing Group, I realised that there is a tremendous amount that one can transfer from engineering and technology, and what we have done in manufacturing industries, to the health sector. Therefore, I have decided to set up a £100 million programme, of which 20 per cent of the annual amount will be directed to healthcare. I am appointing a new chair in healthcare informatics, bringing one of the world’s leading practitioners from Canada—the first of a series of appointments in this area. Imagine: I work in the manufacturing industry and see the correlation between what happens in other sectors of industry and healthcare. If we can learn from one sector, and are able to transfer that to other sectors, there will be a tremendous improvement in productivity, such as we see day in, day out in the industrial sectors. Everything that Peter Gershon said about improving the efficiency and productivity of the health sector has come out of very simple technologies—not rocket science. We must learn from other sectors, and have a totally interdisciplinary approach in medical research and development.