An inquiry, provisionally titled ‘Pathway to a cure – breaking down the barriers’, was launched at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Brain Tumours (APPGBT) held yesterday.
When it comes to vital research funding for this devastating disease, many Parliamentary questions have been asked and comments made in Westminster debates over the years but funding issues for brain tumour research continue to be raised and barriers continue to be identified. Now, though, the will for real political change is unmistakable.
Chair of the APPGBT, Derek Thomas MP said that the aim of the inquiry will be to provide clear recommendations and an action plan to address these barriers and to seek to move from “talk to action”, focusing on solutions rather than problems.
Alongside funding for early-stage research, areas that will come under scrutiny will include repurposing of drugs and novel drug delivery plus the quality and size of the brain tumour research workforce.
The inquiry panel is likely to include Parliamentarians who are supporters of the APPGBT, representatives from brain tumour research funding charities including Brain Tumour Research Chief Executive Sue Farrington Smith MBE, a senior clinician or scientist, a pharmaceutical industry representative and an academic from an allied neuroscience.
Timings will be made public in due course but the format of the inquiry is likely to be two evidence sessions per term for the duration of the 2021/22 parliament with the net cast wide for written evidence to ensure completeness, with invitations for key stakeholders being given to provide oral evidence to the panel.
There will be more about the inquiry, the meeting of the APPG (which had over a dozen Parliamentarians in attendance) and the presentation from Dr Iain Frame CEO of the National Cancer Research Institute in this week’s public affairs blog (available on our website from Friday). You can also sign up to campaign with us and have it sent directly to your inbox every Friday.
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