Health Minister (): We have announced the
Government's intention to enter into a strategic partnership with
Oxford Nanopore – a world-leading UK-based life sciences company
whose technology is used to advance biomedical research and
translate discoveries for improved patient care across cancer,
genetic disease and infectious disease. This collaboration also
involves NHS England and two of our world-leading scientific
institutions – Genomics England and UK Biobank.
The collaboration will seek to utilise Oxford Nanopore's
technology to enhance research and, using insights from the UK's
genetic databases, could pave the way for new treatments for
cancer and rare diseases.
The collaboration is another vote of confidence in the UK's life
sciences sector, which will help kickstart economic growth and
support the 10-Year Health Plan's ambition to shift the health
service from analogue to digital and from sickness to prevention,
helping keep patients out of hospital. The collaboration also
builds on the Chancellor's commitment to support UK spinouts
announced as part of the Budget.
Separately, following a successful pilot at Guy's and St Thomas'
Hospital, we are announcing the scale-up of NHS England's
Respiratory Metagenomics Programme, offering fast track genetic
testing for patients with suspected respiratory infectious
diseases. Through this programme, Nanopore's sequencing
technology will be rolled out from 10 to up to 30 NHS sites to
detect new pathogens emerging in the UK. Patients suspected of
having severe acute respiratory infections will now be diagnosed
within six hours thanks to this technology, compared to the
previous norm of around three days.
This will create an ‘early warning system' for future pandemics,
supporting the Government to take quicker action on emerging
infectious disease, and monitor the threat of future pandemics.
I will provide further updates to the House on this collaboration
as it develops.
