Rachel Reeves confident Gulf trade deal can be done ‘very soon’; European shares ease from record highs – business live

<p>News comes as chancellor faces £20bn-plus hit to public finances from UK productivity downgrade</p><p><strong>Steve Bates</strong>, executive chairman of the Office for Life Sciences, said “a good US deal” would “quickly resolve” the issue of a lack of confidence of big pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and MSD in the UK, and its impact on investment decisions.</p><p>Quizzed by MPs on the science committee, Bates, who took up his new job at OLS in September after running the BioIndustry Association for 13 years, said:</p><p>So I think a good deal with the USA can quickly resolve it, is the simple answer for that.</p><p>I’m saying that if the UK can get a fantastic domestic business environment allied to access to global markets, that’s a fantastic base from which any companies would want to grow for the world.</p><p>I think for brand new, innovative medicines, it’s likely there will be some price increase.</p><p>If you go back to 2015 the spend on medicines was about 12% [of total NHS spending] if you go back earlier, it was higher, it was about 14%. It’s now about 9%. So there is a possibility of increasing percentage spend.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/oct/28/uk-productivity-downgrade-tax-rise-speculation-reeves-hsbc-pharma-business-live">Continue reading...</a>