Sanofi has become the latest Big Pharma to freeze R&D investment decisions in the U.K., while Roche confirmed it is staying put\u2014for now.<\/p>\n
The news that Sanofi won\u2019t consider \u201cany substantial investment\u201d in medicines R&D in the U.K. for the time being continues the fallout from tricky drug pricing negotiations that saw the nation\u2019s health minister walk away from talks with the industry body late last month. It wasn\u2019t long before Merck & Co. became the first pharma to reveal plans to pull its R&D operations<\/a>\u00a0out of the country, announcing last week that it was canceling plans for a 1 billion pound sterling ($1.31 billion) R&D center in London.<\/p>\n Eli Lilly soon followed Merck\u2019s lead,\u00a0pausing its plan<\/a>\u00a0for a biotech incubator site while it awaits \u201cmore clarity around the U.K. life sciences environment.\u201d Even U.K.-based AstraZeneca made the same call, pausing a 200 million pound sterling ($271 million)\u00a0investment in its Cambridge, England research site.<\/p>\n This morning, French pharma Sanofi told Fierce that it is taking a similar stance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe U.K. is a world-class hub for science, and we are always looking at opportunities to work more closely with world-leading universities, scientists and clinicians to research and develop tomorrow\u2019s medicines,\u201d a Sanofi spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, we need to see tangible improvements in the current commercial environment and appropriate recognition of the value of innovation before we consider any substantial investment into U.K. R&D,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n Despite the timing of the string of Big Pharma announcements, various individuals with direct knowledge of the situation have insisted to Fierce that the decisions have not been coordinated.<\/p>\n The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)\u2014which negotiates a drug price rebate scheme with the government\u2014has been sounding the alarm for some time. Back in June, the trade body published the results of a survey<\/a> that suggested that around one in five of the U.K.\u2019s \u201cmost prominent life sciences companies\u201d planned to reduce their R&D investment as a result of this year\u2019s drug pricing rate.<\/p>\n