NTRAC awards the first ever government drug R&D grants to UK researchers. Phase I clinical trials are awarded to drug development trials which can herald a breakthrough in inter-abdominal cancer treatment that has a median survival time of less than twelve months. In a recent press release, UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt stated that the UK is now a leader in the world of drug discovery, and it is important for the country to remain at the forefront of new technologies in the pharmaceutical industry. He pointed out that the last ten years have seen the UK leads the world in the number of drug discovery projects that have been funded, with some of the most exciting drugs ever developed coming from the UK. In order to achieve its goals, the Health and Safety Executive in the UK have introduced a range of initiatives in order to promote the development of drugs in the UK, and in particular to make it easier for researchers to receive research funding from pharmaceutical companies.
The three main aspects of NTRAC are the Pharmaceutical Funding Agency (PFA), which provides research funding to pharmaceutical companies for drug discovery. There are other funding sources such as the European Union, as well as funding from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. In addition to providing pharmaceutical industry funding, NTRAC has also designed a drug discovery programme, which it calls the Drug Discovery Strategy. This strategy has helped increase the number of clinical trials conducted on drugs in the UK. According to Dr Peter Piot, Chair of the NTRAC panel, this strategy has "promoted research through a range of activities including creating the Pharmaceutical Funding Agency [PFA] and developing a drug discovery strategy, which will be of great benefit for the UK as it seeks to make its mark in the world of drug discovery."
The PFA and the other funding sources are not able to finance all the research and development work carried out in the pharmaceutical industry, with only small numbers of the large scale clinical trials being funded by the government. However, they provide significant support to UK scientists, ensuring that the pharmaceutical industry continues to develop new drugs. NTRAC has also developed a strategy to ensure that the drugs that it funds can be used in the best possible way, while ensuring that there is a balance between the need to develop a new drug and the need to maintain the availability of existing ones.
