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Cancer Research UK could be forced to slash 150million per year from its research funding, while the British Heart Foundation anticipates cuts its spend by half from 100million to 50million due to the loss of income caused by Covid-19.

The desperate scenario has prompted more than 60 of the UKs leading cardiovascular disease and cancer research scientists - many of them based in Cambridge - to write an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for urgent financial support for medical research charities.

Cancelled events, such as CRUKs Race for Life, and closed charity shops have decimated income for the charities, which expect a reduction in research funding for the next three to five years.

In the letter, sent today (Tuesday), the scientists warn: This will have a catastrophic and long-lasting impact on both cardiovascular and cancer research in the UK, but also on the broader R&D sector.

They call for swift action to invest in a Life Sciences-Charity Partnership Fund to protect the vital and unique contribution charity-funded biomedical research makes to the UKs R&D ecosystem and the wider economy.

Medical research charities invested 1.9 billion into UK research last year, with CRUK and the BHF alone funding more than half of all non-commercial research in the country into cancer and heart and circulatory diseases.

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, BHFs medical director, said: Without immediate action, the UKs research base faces a devastating fall in funding that will delay progress in discovering new ways of preventing, diagnosing and treating diseases including heart attack, stroke and vascular dementia. We also risk losing a generation of promising young researchers and diminishing the UKs standing as a world leader in science. We cannot afford to let this happen during a pandemic which has underlined the critical role science and research play in the UKs healthcare and economy.

The call for a Life Sciences - Charity Partnership Fund, now backed by many of the countrys most eminent scientists, is about far more than supporting charities. It would represent a government investment in UK research, returned many times over in terms of the world leading scientific discoveries it enables, the fuel it provides to the UK economy, and the lives that will be saved through the treatments and cures that will follow.

With the Chancellor setting out a plan for the UKs economic recovery tomorrow, stabilising UK science should be at the heart of it.

The letter is signed by scientists including Professor Richard Gilbertson, Li Ka Shing chair of oncology, head of the Department of Oncology and director of the Cambridge Cancer Centre, and Prof Greg Hannon, Royal Society Wolfson research professor of cancer molecular biology and director of the CRUK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge.

It adds: For every 1 the BHF invests, its researchers attract 2.14 of additional funding. CRUK is the second largest licensor in oncology in the world licences that underpin tomorrows medicines and todays investment by companies such as AstraZeneca. Charities have led to the formation of over 40 spin-out companies, which in turn have raised over a 1bn in third party investment and the creation of thousands of jobs.

The idea of a co-investment scheme that provides a level of match funding for future charity research over the next three to five years is supported by the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and 151 of its charity members.

The AMRC estimates a reduction in UK medical research investment of 310million this financial year.

BHF supports a portfolio of 446million of research at 47 UK institutions, including funding more than 1,700 researchers, hundreds of whom are in the early stages of their scientific career.

CRUK spent 422million on cancer research in 2018/19 and has 90 institutions in more than 40 UK towns and cities, including its major institute in Cambridge. It funds about 4,000 researchers in labs and hospitals across the UK, including more than 500 PhD students.

The letter warns Boris Johnson: Without your support, the UK risks a slide backwards, undermining decades of pioneering and life saving research, as well as losing a generation of new researchers and a major decline in our nations international competitiveness in life sciences that we have worked so hard to achieve.

Also among the signatories are Prof Martin Bennett, BHF professor of cardiovascular sciences at the University of Cambridge, Prof Jason Carroll, professor of molecular oncology and senior group leader at the CRUK Cambridge Institute, Prof John Danesh, of the University of Cambridge; Wellcome Sanger Institute and Health Data Research UK-Cambridge, Prof Gerard Evan, of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, Prof Kay-Tee Khaw of the University of Cambridge and Prof Ziad Mallat, BHF chair, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Cambridge.

The letter in full

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to you as experts and leaders in the fields of cardiovascular and cancer research, and as British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) funded academics carrying out research at leading UK universities, research centres and institutes. We wish to highlight the significant impact COVID-19 has had on the medical research sector and to urge you to take swift action to invest in a Life Sciences-Charity Partnership Fund to protect the vital and unique contribution charity- funded biomedical research makes to the UKs R&D ecosystem and the wider economy.

The biomedical research sector is key to the health and the wealth of the nation. We therefore welcomed the Governments commitment to make the UK the leading global hub for life sciences. We believe that the sector can be one of the key engines that will help boost the UK economy through COVID-19 recovery, leaving the EU, and beyond. Recent funding announcements, such as the university research support scheme, are positive first steps to help achieve this ambition, but we remain concerned they will not fully address the significant shortfall in charity investment in the UK science base.

The funding provided by charities plays a unique role within the wider funding mix, supporting high- risk discovery science that drives the breakthroughs in our fields (and others), as well as de-risking projects to attract commercial investment and supporting clinical trials that bring the latest innovations and life-saving treatments to patients. Charity funding invests in skills and has supported many of us earlier in our careers, allowing us to continue to build our expertise within the UK system, adding to the strength of its research base and building the UKs global reputation for research excellence.

However, both the BHF and CRUK are now seeing their incomes decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This will have a catastrophic and long-lasting impact on both cardiovascular and cancer research in the UK, but also on the broader R&D sector. CRUK could be forced to cut 150 million per year from its research funding, and the BHF anticipates having to cut its research spend by half this year from 100 million to around 50 million. This means a significantly lower investment in life saving high quality research, in skills and in infrastructure.

To put this challenge into context, last year, medical research charities invested 1.9 billion in research in the UK. CRUK and BHF alone funded 50% and 55% of all UK-based independent research into cancer and heart and circulatory diseases respectively something that will not be possible to maintain for the foreseeable future. Given that level of contribution, such a drastic reduction in their capacity to fund research will have a dramatic impact on the national investment in research in two key areas of unmet medical need.

Moreover, this reduction will have a knock-on impact on our partners in industry and on the inward investment into the UK life science sector. For example, for every 1 the BHF invests, its researchers attract 2.14 of additional funding. CRUK is the second largest licensor in oncology in the world licences that underpin tomorrows medicines and todays investment by companies such as AstraZeneca. Charities have led to the formation of over 40 spin out companies, which in turn have raised over a 1bn in third party investment and the creation of thousands of jobs. The Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) estimates a reduction in UK medical research investment of 310 million this financial year alone which will severely impact the UKs internationally recognised strength in the life sciences.

While charities are doing all they can to support existing research, we are gravely concerned for the future of biomedical research in the UK, and we fear that the latest research support package will not go far enough to plug the funding gap charities are facing. We urge you to support the proposal from CRUK and the BHF, as well as 151 other medical research charities and AMRC, to work in partnership with the sector to establish a Life Sciences-Charity Partnership Fund. This co-investment scheme is urgently needed to help protect and invest in world-class research across the UKs four nations, whose quality is assured through a stringent peer-review process, and could provide matched funding from Government for future charity research over the next 3-5 years (the period in which funding is expected to be most acutely affected).

Without your support, the UK risks a slide backwards, undermining decades of pioneering and life saving research, as well as losing a generation of new researchers and a major decline in our nations international competitiveness in life sciences that we have worked so hard to achieve. This will diminish our reputation as a world-leader in developing medical breakthroughs that save lives lost to cancer, heart and circulatory diseases and countless other conditions. We ask that you reaffirm your commitment to science and research by investing to support medical research charities in this time of need.

Signed,

Cc:

Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Read more

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Prof Ziad Mallat leads Cambridge effort to win 30m to tackle leading cause of heart attacks and strokes

See the article here:
Cancer Research UK and British Heart Foundation warn Prime Minister they may have to cut 200m from research funding - Cambridge Independent

This entry was posted on July 7, 2020 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Molecular Genetics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |