United Kingdom
The policy expectation that the model clinical trial agreements are used without modification is in line requests from industry and the NHS/HSC.
Efforts by the medicines regulator, the MHRA, to clear all backlogs relating to its statutory functions and maintaining predictable review timeframes have put pressure on its staff.
Pharmaceutical companies need to “pressure test” their clinical development strategies early for health technology assessment purposes, particularly in light of the new EU HTA Regulation, a life sciences consultant says.
Sponsors and regulatory agencies within the 27 EU member states must all be “committed” to working with the EU Clinical Trials Regulation in the most appropriate way to keep pace with other countries, including the UK where competition is heating up, says Miguel Forte, CEO of Kiji Therapeutics.
Study sponsors looking for guidance on how the simplified informed consent provisions will be implemented under the new UK clinical trials legislation will have to wait longer. The Health Research Authority is looking at what safeguards are needed to address the “range of concerns” stakeholders had regarding its initial proposal.
A first-of-its-kind review of clinical trial applications submitted to the UK medicines regulator, the MHRA, shows there is a concentration of research in certain disease areas and identifies opportunities to enhance the representation of specific patient groups.
Faced with Trump’s hostile tariff moves, the UK aims to speed up clinical trial start times to support its pharma sector and invest £600m in a new health data research service.
While the pharma industry appears to be exempt from US tariffs imposed by President Trump, a member of the UK House of Lords says the details are unknown and warned that uncertainty “leads to less investment” in business as a whole.
The UK government has listened to industry concerns about high clawback rates under the voluntary scheme and will review it in June in a bid to resolve the issue and “move on to bigger and more important things,” health secretary Wes Streeting says.
England’s health technology assessment institute, NICE, is looking to “reimagine” its evaluation process with the help of AI, rather than just using this technology to speed up its existing processes.
Pharmaceutical companies are being encouraged to reach out to NICE in relation to its HTA Innovation Lab, which provides a sandbox environment in which the health technology assessment body can test new methods of evaluating “innovative and disruptive” therapies.
Health technology assessment body NICE said it has taken on feedback about the implications of allowing higher cost-effectiveness thresholds for some medicines after senior health economists offered diverging views on its methods.
Cell and gene therapy manufacturers must consider the practicalities of their product within the context of a health care system before it comes onto the market to be successful, experts from Novartis, AstraZeneca and England’s National Health Service say.
The UK branded drug industry is calling for adjustments to be made to the UK voluntary scheme framework for branded medicines, after the payment rate increased to 22.9% for 2025. Meanwhile, the generics industry says the scheme is functioning “as intended” and opposes any changes.
An initiative run by health technology appraisal (HTA) bodies in the US, Canada and England is looking at how non-traditional treatment benefits, such as the value of hope and scientific spillover, can inform appraisals and understanding of a product’s value.
The UK’s medicines regulator is pressing on with clarifying its expectations on decentralized manufacturing of medicines.
Payers and health technology assessment bodies in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy are either unwilling to use real-world data in assessments or cannot due to their existing frameworks, say representatives from Gilead Sciences and Autolus Therapeutics.
The Clinical Trials Regulation was “supposed to harmonize” requirements in the EU, but instead it is giving some countries the chance to get ahead by offering faster approval timelines, notes Telethon’s head of regulatory affairs.
The government wants to raise the statutory scheme payment rate for newer branded medicines from 15.5% to 32.2%, after sales data for Q2 and Q3 2024 showed “higher than expected newer medicines sales growth.”
Pharming has convinced NICE to reverse its rejection of its treatment for APDS by providing the health technology assessment institute with more data. It has also dropped the price it was asking for the drug, which has a list price of £352,000 per year per patient.