UK’s R&D in decline, survey finds

The survey found that 35% of the companies polled expected to cut their investment in R&D over the next 12 months, while 46% plan to conduct fewer clinical trials. The industry’s collaborative research links with UK universities also declined. An Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) survey of 11 UK-based member companies revealed that in 2007 there were 606 collaborations between industry and UK universities involving PhD studentships, 9.1% fewer than the 667 collaborations seen in 2005 and 13.7% fewer than in 2003 (702).

Collaborations involving postdoctoral grants also fell by 1.8% compared with 2005, from 333 to 327, and by 24.7% against 2003 (432). Data from pharma majors like AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Lilly & Co, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, showed that the number of university collaborations involving PhD studentships fell by 4.6% from 627 to 596 between 2005 and 2007, and by 11.8% from the 676 seen in 2003.

According to ABPI, factors like escalating costs and increasing difficulty in negotiating contracts, intellectual property ownership issues figure behind the dwindling number of industry-university collaborations. The ABPI urged the government to address the critical issues facing the pharma sector and help restore the pharma industry’s overall confidence in the UK as a research hub.

Richard Barker, ABPI director general, said: “With increasing competition for biomedical leadership from Asian economies, it is vital that government and industry unite to restore confidence and maximize the UK’s chances in the global race for pharmaceutical innovation.”