Key Summary
- UK is speeding up clinical trials.
- Patients could get new treatments sooner.
- Safety stays central while encouraging innovation.
The UK witnessed an increase in clinical trials last year and hopes to accelerate it further this year and bring new treatments sooner to benefit the patients.
The new clinical trial regulations will be implemented from April this year to support the government’s goal to reduce the time from trial application to first participant to 150 days, without compromising on safety standards.
According to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), there was a 9 percent increase in clinical trial applications between January and November 2025, compared with the same period in 2024.
The growth was strongest in early and innovative research, and companies are also coming to regulators earlier for help.
The number of MHRA scientific advice meetings provided on clinical trials rose by 75 per cent over that period.
The patient participation in clinical research is also higher than pre-pandemic days.
Across England, more than 450,000 people took part in clinical studies last year.
The government is confident that the new regulations will further boost the number of clinical trials in the country.
The lower-risk trials will be fast-tracked and start sooner with high safety standards. This will free up experts to focus on complex and early-phase studies.
MHRA will launch a 14-day assessment route for phase 1 trials, and introduce a rapid pathway for the earliest testing of new medicines, which is expected to attract global developers.
It will also provide clearer and agile routes of innovation such as utilisation of early safety data from overseas studies that matches UK standards, and new MHRA capability to assess computer model simulations to help predict how new medicines may behave before they are tested in patients.
Health minister Zubir Ahmed said, “This Government is laser-focused on accelerating clinical trial set-up times and cementing our position as global leaders.”
“These improvements mean we are making it even easier for companies to bring clinical trials to the UK, offering a single point of support, faster processes, and a more predictable pathway to launch studies.”
MHRA chief executive Lawrence Tallon said, “We’ve made practical improvements that are helping trials move through the system more smoothly.”
Tallon will be attending the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this week, alongside Ahmed and DHSC chief scientific adviser, Professor Lucy Chappell, as part of a UK Government delegation to engage global life sciences leaders and investors.
