"Compare and contrast. Here is the opening line in the government's response to news that US pharmaceutical company Merck is scrapping its 1bn research centre in King's Cross in London because it thinks the UK is not an internationally competitive venue. Whistling cheerfully, the Department for Science, Technology and Innovation managed to claim: The UK has become the most attractive place to invest in the world."
"And here is Sir John Bell, former regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford and all-round grand guru of life sciences in the UK. He told Radio 4 he had spoken to several chief executives of large pharmaceutical companies in the past six months and they're all in the same space, and that is, they're not going to do any more investing in the UK."
"The first is the amount of money the UK spends on medicines 9% of its healthcare budget, versus 17% in Germany and Italy and 15% in France. The second is the clawback mechanism that caps the NHS's spending on prescription medicines. The formula last year spat out a figure of 23% to be recouped from firms, whereas equivalent European schemes tend to be in single digits. Such out-of-line ratios deter investment, goes the industry's argument."
US firm Merck cancelled a £1bn King's Cross research centre, citing the UK's lack of international competitiveness. The government asserts that the UK is the most attractive global investment location, while senior life-sciences figures report that major pharma chiefs claim they will stop investing in the UK. Industry concern focuses on low UK medicine spending (9% of the healthcare budget) compared with Germany, Italy and France, and a steep NHS clawback that required recouping 23% from firms last year versus single-digit European equivalents. Such ratios are said to deter investment, even though the UK retains world-class R&D and public manufacturing funding.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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