£600mln for more efficient trials9 Apr 2025 11:14
The UK government has said it will invest up to £600 million ($764 million) in the creation of a centralised health data platform, creating a single point of contact for medical researchers seeking to tap into NHS data.
Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer said in a speech on the UK economy – in the wake of the introduction of US tariffs – that the new Health Data Research Service (HDRS) will make sure that patient data held within the NHS is "unlocked for the public good."
The centre will be located at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridgeshire and the Wellcome Trust is providing around £100 million of the funding for its creation and operation.
While its primary function will be to serve as a gatekeeper for researchers seeking access to anonymised primary care and secondary care resources and mortality data, so project organisers don't have to sift through multiple sources, it will also support clinical research by matching patients to trials.
Starmer has also said clinical trials will be "fast-tracked" with the time it takes to get a trial set up cut to 150 days by March 2026, down from around 250 days in 2022, part of an effort to reverse a steady decline in commercial clinical trials in the UK in recent years.
"Through this new drive, patients will have improved access to new treatments and technologies," said Starmer. "We already saw the power of health data during the pandemic and this will allow the NHS to make huge strides in patient care."