https://www.abpi.org.uk/

Greater Manchester’s ambition is to be the safest and most effective place to receive medicines in the world in order to improve outcomes, secure best value for money from its medicines budget, and establish itself as a word-leading site for the research and launch of new medicines.

Our ambition is huge and cannot be achieved without the input and expertise of the pharmaceutical industry. In 2017 the city region signed a historic partnership agreement with the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) which sets out how we will work collaboratively to:

• Improve the use and safety of medicines to improve health and care outcomes.
• Develop a globally competitive ‘living lab’ to generate real-world evidence for research and the assessment of the value of medicines: increasing the number of real-world clinical trials in Greater Manchester which benefits patients and the region’s economy.
• Explore new ways of paying for medicines based on patient outcomes – enabling the £1 billion spent every year on medicines in the region to be as effective as possible.

Achieving these aims is being driven by the Greater Manchester and Pharmaceutical Industry Group. Formed as a result of this partnership agreement. It brings together NHS expertise alongside industry to address barriers to collaboration, jointly deliver programmes to improve the use and safety of medicines and utilise the unique digital capabilities of the NHS to discover develop and deploy new medicines and treatments.

This novel approach has changed the landscape in terms of how the NHS works with the pharmaceutical industry to share resources and expertise and has driven forward an ambitious and groundbreaking programme of projects. Amongst others, this includes becoming the first UK city to eliminate Hepatitis C (by 2025), optimising medication for 67,000 COPD patients and working towards bending the curve on Diabetes.