Pharmaceutical industry response to Chancellor’s economic statement

In his speech, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak outlined important short-term measures to support businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

While this second phase of the Government’s fiscal response to the pandemic focuses on jobs, the Chancellor outlined a third phase that will concentrate on rebuilding, with a Budget and Spending Review in the autumn.

Richard Torbett, Chief Executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said:

"We've seen a significant intervention from the Chancellor today. Coronavirus has shown us all why having a strong science sector is so important, and that it isn’t something you can build overnight. Getting the third phase of the recovery right will be vital if we’re to make the UK a science superpower.

“Looking ahead to the Autumn, flagship policies like capital grants for advanced medicines manufacturing and modernised R&D tax credits will be essential if we’re to reach this ambition for Britain.”

Last month the ABPI published its Life Sciences Recovery Roadmap setting out the critical issues affecting the sector and steps Government can take to ensure the life science sector is at the heart of the UK’s economic recovery and supports the NHS to return to full strength.

And this week the Office for Health Economics published a landmark study that found public and private investment would need to increase by more than 50% over the next seven years if the Government is to meet its R&D spending targets.

The UK pharmaceutical industry employs 63,000 people across 700 businesses. The pharmaceutical industry already supports high-quality jobs and apprenticeships for young people and today’s measures go some way to helping address the 133,00 jobs that will need to be filled by 2030.