Will the UK Government’s decision to align with EU rules on clinical trials improve patient outcomes?
The government has said the UK will align as closely as possible with EU rules on clinical trials after Brexit.
The announcement means a vote in the House of Lords to amend the EU Withdrawal Bill to address the issue does not now need to go ahead.
Cancer Research UK welcomed the news and said international collaboration on clinical trials is vital in developing treatments as fast as possible. This is particularly crucial for rare cancers and ones which affect children as individual countries may not have enough patients to run trials.
Of the 200 trials directly funded by the charity over a quarter involve patients from at least one other EU country.
The UK participated in nearly 5,000 trials with other EU countries between 2004-16. And the UK led the third largest number of clinical trials, after Germany and Spain in the same period.
Cancer Research UK’s head of policy development, Emlyn Samuel, said the news brings greater certainty on how clinical trials will be governed in future and that it is now vital the EU and UK build on this to agree key details on how they will work together in the future.
Further information
Cancer Research UK: UK to align with EU clinical trial rules after Brexit
Parliament: Hansard