UK officials ‘working day and night’ to resolve NHS drug pricing row’
The UK science minister has said officials are “working day and night” trying to resolve the standoff with big pharmaceutical companies over drug pricing.Speaking to industry leaders and investors at London life sciences week, Patrick Vallance, a former GSK executive, said the government was “clear eyed about the challenges”.“Recent headlines have not always been favourable, and we are acutely aware of the pressures that companies face in the current commercial environment here in the UK,” he said.“Many of us are working day and night right the way across government to make progress on these issues.And rest assured that we are laser focused on getting that resolved.
”Ministers are working on proposals to raise the cost-effectiveness thresholds at which new medicines are assessed for use in the NHS by about 25% overall.The UK spends less than other European countries on new medications as a share of gross domestic product.The government is trying to rebuild its relationship with big pharma, after negotiations over drug pricing broke down in late August following an ultimatum set by the health secretary, Wes Streeting.This prompted MSD, AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly to abandon or pause planned investments in the UK.The chief executive of Eli Lilly, Dave Ricks, went on to describe the UK as “probably the worst country in Europe” for drug prices.
The row between industry and UK government has been complicated by Donald Trump putting pressure on pharmaceutical companies to lower their drug prices in the US and increase them elsewhere, and to invest more in the US, or face 100% import tariffs,Keir Starmer’s business adviser Varun Chandra has been involved in negotiations in recent weeks,Vallance said there were reasons to be optimistic and listed recent investments such as Moderna’s £150m vaccine site in Oxfordshire, BioNTech’s £1bn investment over 10 years, and the medical device company Convatec’s £500m research centre in Manchester,His comments came as he outlined an ambition to turn the UK into the leading life sciences power in Europe by 2030 and be in the top three globally by 2035, alongside the US and China,London’s life sciences sector has already attracted £1.
6bn in venture capital investment this year, said the capital’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, more than Paris, Stockholm and Berlin combined.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionSpeaking at the same event, he said: “London has long been a leading light in the life sciences, from the discovery of penicillin, to uncovering the cause of cholera.”Dame Anne Glover, the co-founder of Amadeus Capital, said UK pension funds must invest more in venture capital to support science startups.“A mere half percent of pension fund assets going into venture capital would transform our market,” she said.
Lawyers for Fed governor accuse Trump administration of ‘cherry-picking’ facts in fraud case
Lawyers for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, called Trump administration allegations of mortgage fraud against her “baseless” on Monday and accused the administration of “cherry-picking” discrepancies to bolster their claims.After accusing Cook of misrepresenting multiple residences as her primary residence to get a better mortgage rate, Donald Trump briefly fired Cook from her role as a Fed governor and as one of 12 voting members of the Federal Reserve board that sets interest rates. The supreme court reinstated her and will in January hear arguments over Cook’s removal.In the letter, addressed to Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, and Edward Martin, the deputy attorney general, Abbe Lowell, Cook’s lawyer, outlined for the first time Cook’s detailed defense against the accusations. Lowell said that the dispute involves three of Cook’s properties: a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a condo in Atlanta, Georgia, and a home in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Japan and Switzerland’s economies contract as US tariffs hit exports; Alphabet shares jump after Warren Buffett reveals stake – as it happened
Time to recap.Japan and Switzerland have both suffered an economic hit from Donald Trump’s trade wars.Japan’s GDP shrank by 0.4% in July-September, dragged down by a fall in exports.In a double-blow to Tokyo, shares in Japanese tourism and retail firms have fallen sharply after China warned its citizens not to travel to Japan
Jeff Bezos reportedly launches new AI startup with himself as CEO
After stepping down as Amazon’s CEO four years ago, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder and former chief executive of the online shopping company, is going to be a CEO again. This time, Bezos has appointed himself co-CEO of an AI startup called Project Prometheus, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources.The startup, which will focus on developing AI for engineering and manufacturing in various fields, has already received $6.2bn in funding – more than many companies are able to raise in their lifetimes. Leading the company alongside Bezos is his co-founder and co-CEO Vik Bajaj, a celebrity tech executive in his own right
White nationalist talking points and racial pseudoscience: welcome to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia
Entries in Elon Musk’s new online encyclopedia variously promote white nationalist talking points, praise neo-Nazis and other far-right figures, promote racist ideologies and white supremacist regimes, and attempt to revive concepts and approaches historically associated with scientific racism, a Guardian analysis has found.The tech billionaire and Donald Trump ally recently launched xAI’s AI-generated Grokipedia with a promise that it would “purge out the propaganda” he claims infests Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that Musk has often attacked but that has long been a key feature of the internet.Grokipedia, now with more than 800,000 entries, is generated and, according to a note on each entry, “factchecked” by Grok, xAI’s large language AI model.The Guardian contacted xAI for comment. Seconds after the request was sent, there was an apparently automated reply that said only: “Legacy Media Lies
NRL joins AFL in identifying players it suspects of drug use for testing target ‘list’
The NRL’s in-house spies are collecting intelligence on players they suspect are using drugs, and have sent a list of athletes to Sport Integrity Australia they believe should be targeted for testing.It is a practice also used by the AFL, but with uncertain benefits. Of the 51 names on a list provided by the AFL – as revealed by the Australian National Audit Office in March – just one has returned an adverse analytical finding.The revelations shed light on the practice within the major sporting codes, which are paying the independent integrity agency to collect samples, while also advising on players they suspect are breaching anti-doping rules – a relationship that has drawn concern from federal MPs.Information provided by SIA to a parliamentary inquiry this week confirmed the NRL provides a testing target “list” of names, while other sports also co-operate in a more ad-hoc fashion
Dangerous times lie ahead for NRL as latest skirmish with rugby union ramps up | Nick Tedeschi
The long-awaited R360 threat has finally hit the NRL with Storm fan favourite Ryan Papenhuyzen and Kangaroos three-quarter Zac Lomax quitting their clubs and the sport. While the first salvo has come under the shroud of mystery with neither player revealing their future plans, this war over the elite talent of the NRL is far more likely to escalate than it is to evaporate over the next two years.It is the first truly external threat to the NRL’s hold on its talent in nearly a quarter-century, since a newly professional and cock-a-hoop Rugby Australia (then known as the ARU) used its brief surge in relative popularity – spurred by the public’s disenchantment with rugby league following the Super League War – to sign big-name NRL players Wendell Sailor, Mat Rogers and Lote Tuqiri. It is a threat the NRL should take extremely seriously, even if R360’s attempt to sign a host of rugby league stars will not truly cut at the heart of the 13-man game and its ongoing viability.This, of course, is not the first skirmish between the two codes
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