Over £100 m will be invested in NHS clinical research facilities to develop new treatments to benefit thousands of patients.
The money, provided by the National Institute for Health Research, will be spent on research nurses and technicians at 19 facilities around the country. A huge number of new treatments for conditions including cancer, diabetes, stroke, dementia and obesity will be developed by researchers at the facilities. Some of the funding will also be used to conduct research into rare diseases. One of the clinical research facilities that will receive funding is Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, in Liverpool. It will use its funding to support early-stage trials of drugs for children with diseases including cancer, arthritis and asthma. Children often metabolise and absorb medicines differently to adults, and research on drugs especially for children has been until recently a neglected area. The team at Alder Hey will play a vital part in finding ways that medicines can be used more safely and effectively to treat children.
