Highlights Archive

Sir Keir Starmer has carried out a reshuffle of his Shadow Cabinet ministers this week, with the Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth being reassigned to Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. Mr Ashworth, MP for Leicester South, was in the Shadow Health office from 2016 until this month. He was one of the few shadow ministers to retain his job during…

The proposal was disclosed after Labour MP Rosie Cooper asked whether the Secretary of State planned to increase funding available via the MedTech Funding Mandate. Mr Argar also revealed that the Department intends to work with industry on a range of approaches to “tackle the underlying causes of the lack of adoption” as part of the strategy. The plan will…

The move will bolster AstraZeneca’s efforts to develop cutting-edge therapeutics, such as nucleotide-based gene-editing and cell therapies, and support their focus on specialised and precision medicines. The company hopes that the unveiling marks a new wave of scientific innovation for the UK. It also puts the UK’s world-class life sciences cluster in Cambridge, which generates almost £3 billion annually to…

The Guardian has reported that a ‘COVID exit strategy’ is being drawn up by the UK Government that could take effect from April. These reports are unconfirmed by the Government, but leaked documents from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) have been obtained by the newspaper that show plans of winding down the official government-backed testing system and tracing operations.…

The COP26 summit ended last weekend with nearly 200 countries agreeing to the “Glasgow Climate Pact”, to keep 1.5C alive. The summit was the largest international event of its kind ever held in the United Kingdom, and more than 25,000 delegates convened in the Scottish capital to speed up the pace of climate action. The deal was headed for unanimous…

The Government has announced a funding injection of nearly £250 million pounds into the modernisation of diagnostic technology in the NHS. The overall goal of the investment is to support the NHS’s ongoing push to drive down care backlog figures, and ensure that diagnostic screenings are at the necessary level to detect undiagnosed diseases within the UK population. The improved…

All four UK health services have now pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions, the Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid has announced. This commitment comes as 47 other countries have agreed similar ambitions across the world as part of the COP26 Science and Innovation Day. The list of countries are pledging “landmark commitments to develop climate resilient, sustainable…

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, took place from 31 October to 12 November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. The summit was co-led by the United Kingdom and Italy. BIVDA members can download here a briefing document on the key commitments made by world leaders regarding climate change, and transformations within global health services to reduce…

A new state-of-the-art cancer clinical diagnostics facility is to be installed at the Royal Marsden NHS Trust. The liquid biopsy testing facility will be a hub for related research and has been agreed upon following a partnership with Guardant Health, a leading precision oncology company. Guardant Health’s role will facilitate a rapid development of the unit’s technology, so that cancers…