Media Monitoring: 19th February – 4th March

The Department of Health and Social Care has issued the GPES Data for Consented Research Directions 2026, enabling secure access to GP records for participants who have already consented to take part in major research studies, including UK Biobank, Our Future Health and Genomics England.
This addresses a long-standing gap in UK health research. Until now, many studies have relied largely on hospital data – effectively the “final chapter” of a patient’s illness.
GP records provide earlier insights, capturing changes in blood pressure, prescribing patterns and initial symptoms, enabling researchers to understand how diseases develop and are managed in the community.

Thousands of pharmacies in England, including a number in Wes Streeting’s own constituency, have written to the Health Secretary to warn that they are being faced with ‘agonising decisions about what services to cut to their patients to keep their doors open’ when new costs hit in April.
Owners representing one in three pharmacies in England – serving an estimated 15.5 million patients – have taken the unprecedented collective step to write to the Health Secretary to warn him that pharmacies ‘are at real risk of imminent closure due to intolerable financial pressures… blowing an enormous hole in the 10 Year Plan before it has even begun’.
The letter comes as a new survey by the National Pharmacy Association found that at least 65 per cent of pharmacies in England operated at a loss in 2025, leaving them at heightened risk. Pharmacy closures have continued at the rate of over one a week last year despite receiving the first funding rise in years.

The findings suggest continued sector resilience despite recent macroeconomic and regulatory pressures facing the 15,436 life sciences companies currently domiciled in the UK.
Lab capacity has also increased sharply. Available lab space across the “golden triangle” of London, Oxford and Cambridge now stands at 1.2 million sq ft — up 68% year-on-year — with a further 3.65 million sq ft under construction to 2028. Notably, a £1bn expansion at the London Cancer Hub in Sutton will deliver around 1 million sq ft of new lab space and 3,000 high-skilled jobs.
The report also highlights shifting regional dynamics, with the North West now second only to London for new company formations, signaling a narrowing north–south divide in life sciences growth.

A new clinical trial is underway in Southampton which hopes a diagnostic tampon could improve how quickly ovarian cancer is caught.
University Hospital Southampton is leading the study where researchers will see if the sanitary product can help compare vaginal fluid with cancer cells to help spot the early signs of the disease.
Currently there is no screening process for ovarian cancer and so doctors must rely on patients to come forward with symptoms – such as persistent bloating, stomach pain, loss of appetite and feeling the need to urinate more often.