UK and Europe risk falling behind US and China in biotech, says AstraZeneca boss

theguardian.com:

The boss of Britain’s biggest drugmaker has said that the UK and the rest of Europe are falling behind China and the US in the creation of biotech firms and clinical trials of new medicines.

Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said that while China had seen an “explosion of biotech companies” and a “rapid expansion of clinical trials”, the UK and EU had posted declines.

Although the UK is great for science research at universities and in commercial laboratories, he argued that “if you want to build a thriving life sciences sector … you need more than research and discovery science”.

“You need an environment that provides the right incentives: the right tax environment and the right environment to conduct clinical trials, which has been more difficult recently – for good reasons: doctors and nurses are working very hard to deal with the flow of patients,” Soriot said, referring to the growing waiting lists for treatment since the pandemic.

The AstraZeneca boss said its conversations with the UK government had been constructive and urged ministers “to keep an eye on the long term”. The industry is locked in negotiations with the government over the soaring rebates that it pays to the NHS on medicine sales.

“We have some of the lowest prices in Europe and the UK,” he said. “When you add the 26.5% rebate, it becomes rapidly unattractive for companies to operate in this environment and certainly very unattractive to invest. We are hoping to achieve a more favourable environment from a pricing and investment viewpoint.”

Soriot was also critical of the EU’s policies and its overhaul of pharmaceutical legislation, saying that if Europe was aiming to catch up, it would not do so “with the kind of economic policies the