Key Summary
- The updated guidance was developed in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Care Research
- It streamlines processes, defines clearer roles and responsibilities, promotes consistent good practices in IP management across the NHS
- It helps create conditions for local entrepreneurship, both inside and beyond the NHS, and supports grassroots innovation
Patients will get faster access to groundbreaking treatments, as the government has updated NHS IP guidance for the first time in 23 years, by cutting red tape to get new innovative products and ideas to the frontline.
The government has unveiled vital updates to the Intellectual Property (IP) guidance for the NHS in England to stimulate innovation, speed up patient access to new technologies and unlock economic growth.
Developed in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the updated guidance directly supports the government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future.
The NHS currently relies on guidance set up in 2002, which was not designed for cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).
This had slowed down the process of groundbreaking innovations reaching the front line, often being held up in complex local and legal negotiations.
The innovators had to navigate a maze of uncertainty - inconsistent IP management approaches, unclear processes, and barriers that have held back great ideas.
This had pushed the UK behind other health systems in translating NHS innovation into commercial success and many opportunities were lost due to red tape.
In a particular case, a major collaboration between an NHS-affiliated researcher and a tech company - which had attracted significant interest and potential investment - was derailed after nearly two years of legal negotiations.
In another case, a company providing speech and language therapy support to 200 schools faced ongoing uncertainty for almost two years due to the absence of clear IP policies.
The new guidance addresses these challenges by streamlining processes, defining clearer roles and responsibilities, promoting consistent good practices in IP management across the NHS, and making it simpler for ideas to move from concept to commercialisation, so that innovation can reach patients faster and drive growth for the NHS and our economy.
It gets the basic conditions right to promote innovation and create the conditions for local entrepreneurship, both inside and beyond the NHS, supporting grassroots innovation.
Health Innovation and Safety minister, Dr Zubir Ahmed, said, "By getting the fundamentals right, we can drive transformation, commercialise ideas both domestically and internationally, and strengthen the UK’s position as a global leader in health and life sciences research and innovation."
This new guidance ensures the NHS is fairly rewarded for the innovations it helps create - with any returns reinvested straight back into patient care and future innovation, he added.
Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care and chief executive officer of the NIHR, said, "The IP guidance for the NHS marks a pivotal step in strengthening our health and care research ecosystem and will be a catalyst for progress in research and innovation."
Welcoming the government move, Andrew Davies, executive director, Digital Health (Association of British HealthTech Industries), said, "Clear IP guidance is essential to unlock safe, scalable innovation in the NHS. With the right framework, industry can invest with confidence, co-develop solutions more effectively and bring cutting-edge technologies to patients, while strengthening the UK’s position as a global leader in HealthTech."
