More than 30 top pharmaceutical and health tech companies, including Roche, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have written to the Prime Minister urging him to take urgent action to preserve the vital contribution medical research charities make to life sciences in this country.
Co-ordinated by the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), which Brain Tumour Research is proud to be member of, the letter updated Boris Johnson on the effects that the pandemic has had on medical research funding charities in terms of their income and the impact this was likely to have on the sector.
“COVID-19 has had an immediate and devastating impact on medical research charities. With dramatic falls in their fundraising income, medical research charities are projecting a £310 million shortfall in research spend over the next year and estimate that it will take over four years to recover.”
The letter concludes:
“We recognise the Government’s clear drive to put R&D at the heart of the UK’s economic and social recovery but we have yet to see clarity in this around what this means for the future of charity funded research. By preserving charity-funded research in the short-term, Government can help create high-quality research, innovation infrastructure and skills benefitting the UK economy in the longer term.
We join the AMRC and industry in urging Government to provide financial support for medical research charities.
It’s not the cost of doing it that really matters it’s the cost of not doing it.
You can read the full letter here