EP 125: The future of UK Clinical Trial Policy: Innovation, integration, and game-changing legislation with Lord James O’Shaughnessy
March 7, 2024
This week, we’re joined by Lord James O’Shaughnessy, Member of the House of Lords (UK), and Senior Partner at Newmarket Strategy. In May 2023, Lord O’Shaughnessy led and published a government-commissioned review into the UK clinical trials process, producing key recommendations for policy improvements in R&D innovation.
He and Patrick discuss his experience as the Minister in charge of leading the National Health Service through Brexit, and the fundamental importance of integrating R&D into the healthcare system.
0:00 Introduction
1:25 How Lord O’Shaughnessy became involved in scientific policy making and his path to writing the UK Commercial Clinical Trials Review.
04:05 How Lord O’Shaughnessy pivoted from education to a focus on life sciences
06:38 The biggest challenges Lord O’Shaughnessy faced during his time as Parliamentary Under Secretary for Health (2016-2018)
08:00 Navigating the health and care system through Brexit and the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
11:27 How the need for the UK Clinical Trials Review was identified and what challenges and issues brought the project to the fore
13:46 What the report found to explain the decline of clinical trials in the UK?
16:09 Bureaucratic challenges reducing the speed of approval and how best to balance frontline healthcare and research innovation
19:10 How best the National Health Service can support and resource research
21:50 The structural and cultural elements needed to integrate clinical research into the UK healthcare system
23:20 Accessibility of data for research purposes and the key legal and policy frameworks required to support it
26:24 How best to enable successful and safe access to frontline health data for the purposes of research
29:25 Public health emergency legislation as a model for data sharing that could power research into poorly understood conditions with high unmet needs
30:15 Building trust and transparency with the general public around using health data to support research
32:00 Key areas where the UK is excelling in research
34:28 How to ensure that research is fundamental to the healthcare system
36:01 Budgets to invest in innovation
38:35 The challenges of moving to preventative healthcare solutions
40:00 The long-term view of early-stage R&D vs. immediate frontline healthcare
41:44 Key observations on current data and healthcare policies
44:35 Closing remarks
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