Big pharma is at war with the UK, and the government can’t back down now | Nick Dearden

<p>The industry has always wanted the NHS to pay more for its drugs; now it is pulling research and investment out of Britain</p><p>This year so far, some of the biggest pharmaceutical corporations in the world have <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03001-y">withdrawn about £2bn in proposed investment</a> from the UK. One has even threatened to withhold new medicines from NHS patients. Taken together, it’s hard not to conclude that big pharma is at war with the UK.</p><p>Merck <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03001-y">has scrapped</a> a £1bn research facility, while AstraZeneca ditched a £450m vaccine lab and is rethinking an expansion of another research unit. Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/sep/16/big-pharma-firms-uk-investment-trump-msd-eli-lilly-astrazeneca">has cancelled</a> 34 partnerships with the NHS in the last year, and Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novartis are all believed to have put investments “on hold”. BMS is also <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/09/22/nhs-must-pay-fair-share-us-drug-giant-trump-pressure/">threatening to play hardball</a> with its new schizophrenia drug, saying it is “prepared to make the difficult decision” to “walk away” if the NHS won’t pay the price the corporation wants to charge.</p><p>Nick Dearden is director of Global Justice Now (formerly World Development Movement)</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/01/big-pharma-war-uk-government-nhs-drugs">Continue reading...</a>