This week, the Academy, Cancer Research UK and Wellcome hosted a meeting to discuss progress since the Academy’s 2011 report ‘A new pathway for the regulation and governance of health research’.
This influential report recommended the establishment of the Health Research Authority to streamline the processes of carrying out biomedical and health research in the UK. A report of the follow-up meeting held earlier this week will be published in due course, and further information can be found on our events page.
At the follow-up meeting, we were pleased to welcome the final report of the Accelerated Access Review published last week. This review aims to speed up access to innovative medicines, medical devices and technologies for patients in the UK so that they can benefit from advances in biomedical research.
Professor Sir Robert Lechler PMedSci, President of the Academy commented on the review:
"The UK leads the way in medical research and innovation but lags behind in its adoption; a paradox that has been frustrating researchers, healthcare professionals and patients for some time.
"It is fantastic to see this review process conclude with a report outlining practical steps for making new treatments and technologies available to patients, and to ensure that the UK is not just a generator but a facilitator and adopter of innovation. We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to feed the views of Academy Fellows into this review.
"We look forward to seeing how the recommendations of the Review will be implemented and will continue to offer our expertise and support to this important area to ensure that research delivers improvements in health as efficiently and effectively as possible."
The Review was led by Sir Hugh Taylor with an advisory group, chaired by former President of the Academy Professor Sir John Bell GBE FRS HonFREng FMedSci.