Brown shakes up health research

Medical research institutions and funding bodies have given a cautious welcome to proposals that will overhaul the public funding of health research in the UK and encourage greater co-operation between the public and private sectors.

The proposals are rooted in a review ordered by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, in March last year to examine the best institutional arrangements for a new, ring-fenced single fund to support health research, and announced in the pre-Budget report.

Published in December, the review by Sir David Cooksey proposed a package of measures, which it said would make the arrangements for research funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Department of Health more coherent and the system better able to translate research into improved information and treatments for patients.

The measures, which were accepted by the government in last month’s pre-Budget report, include the creation of a new body, the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research.

The agency will oversee the government’s health research strategy and communicate it to interested parties in the private sector, such as pharmaceutical companies, which consume

large amounts of medical research information.

A joint health research funding board will be set up with representatives from the MRC and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the body that oversees the Department of Health’s research and development strategy.

Better demarcation of responsibilities between the two bodies are also planned, as is speeding up the adoption of cost-effective drugs and the prioritisation of public and private sector research that addresses health needs that have not been met.

Speaking at the launch of the review last month, Sir David said that the measures represented a "once in a generation opportunity" for the UK to "excel again in healthcare innovation and service delivery."

But IWR understands that the Russell Group, which represents the 20 top research universities in the UK, including Imperial College London and the Oxbridge colleges, is concerned that the new funding regime could disadvantage "pure" medical research by linking funding with service improvement.

The review said: "We recommend that future increases in funding should be weighted towards translational and applied research until a more balanced portfolio is achieved ."

Both the NIHR - which will be established as an executive agency of the Department of Health by 2009 under the proposals - and the MRC welcomed the changes.

MRC chief executive professor Colin Blakemore said the organisation " embraced the opportunities set out in the Cooksey Review", which offered a " perceptive analysis" of the gaps between research and actual changes in patient care.