Wellcome responds to government spending review

John-Arne Røttingen, chief executive of Wellcome, the UK's largest non-governmental funder of research, said:
 

“The previous government planned to reach £22bn a year of R&D spending last year, then pushed it back. Today's review pushes that aim back further to 2030. This is a reduction in ambition at a time when the UK desperately needs the economic growth that investing in science brings.

 

“The squeeze on the health research budget in particular risks limiting our ability to find new treatments and innovation in the NHS. Britain has a strength in life sciences and medicine that it should be leaning into, to benefit patients and the economy.

 

“Meanwhile, a consequence of the disappointing decision to cut overseas aid is that the science it funds, tackling some of the world’s biggest health threats, will be halved by the end of the decade."