A total of £10 million has been awarded to the Medicines and
Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to help bring
innovative new medicines and medical technologies to UK patients
more quickly, HM Treasury has announced today. The
funding will be used to accelerate routes for bringing innovative
medical products developed in the UK onto the market, as well as
those made and approved by other trusted regulatory partners
globally.
The funding over the next two years will support development of a
thorough but shortened process to speed up the approval process
for cutting-edge treatments developed in the UK with the greatest
opportunity to meet the UK’s healthcare priorities, such as
cancer vaccines and AI-based therapeutics for mental ill-health.
It will also support the establishment of an international
recognition framework, allowing the MHRA to capitalise on the
expertise and decision-making of trusted regulatory partners and
provide patients with fast-track access to best-in-class medical
products that have been approved in other countries.
The MHRA will still be responsible for the approval of all
‘recognition route’ applications, ensuring that all products are
of sufficient quality to be licensed in the UK and it will
operate a robust process promoting patient safety and access to
improve the health of the UK population.
Using the Agency’s pre-existing international partnerships
developed through the Access Consortium and
Project Orbis, the
first regulatory partners MHRA intends to build new recognition
routes with are the FDA, in the USA, and with the PMDA, in Japan.
Dr June Raine, MHRA Chief Executive, said:
“We greatly welcome the £10 million funding announced by HM
Treasury today, which will be used to fund our ongoing innovation
work and to accelerate the development of ground-breaking global
recognition routes, which will give UK patients faster access to
the most cutting-edge medical products in the world.”
“This cash injection will ensure that we have access to the best
resources, talent, and infrastructure to deliver this ambitious
vision for patients across the UK.”
, Secretary of State for
Health and Social Care, said:
“Technology is transforming our care for patients, delivering
faster and more accurate diagnoses. This new funding will
accelerate the delivery of cutting-edge treatments like including
cancer vaccines and new artificial intelligence technology that
will make therapy more accessible to those who suffer from mental
health conditions.
“It will also fast-track access to medical products that have
been approved in other countries by trusted regulatory partners,
ensuring we continue to provide the best, most innovative and
safest treatments in the UK.”
The MHRA is a global leader in regulatory innovation. The
MHRA Innovation Office
was established in 2013 to provide healthcare innovators with
access to world-class regulatory knowledge, expertise, and
experience from within the MHRA. The Agency is continually
building new, international partnerships to ensure that
innovative treatments reach patients as quickly as possible.
Scientific progress has been made at the Agency through highly
successful internationally collaborative schemes such as the
Access Consortium, which has enabled an approval for the
vision-loss medicine faricimab, and Project Orbis, from which
there have been eight approvals for new cancer medicines.
Notes to Editors
- The Medicines and Healthcare
products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for
regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK by
ensuring they work and are acceptably safe. All our work is
underpinned by robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that
the benefits justify any risks.
- The MHRA is an executive agency of the Department of Health
and Social Care.
