UK set on resolving standoff with big pharma, science minister says

Lord Vallance told MPs that NHS spending on medicines had fallen as a proportion of total healthcare spend since 2015. Photograph: Michael Neelon(misc)/Alamy

The UK is determined to resolve its standoff with the pharmaceutical industry and reverse a 10-year decline in NHS spending on medicines, the science minister has told MPs after a string of drugmakers cancelled projects worth nearly £2bn.

Patrick Vallance, a former executive at drugmaker GSK, said the country needed to increase spending on medicines and reverse a decade of declining investment.