In a speech in London today, the Prime Minister is expected to announce plans to make the UK¡¯s life sciences sector a world leader, including ?180 million to help bring new drugs and medical technologies to market through a ¡°Biomedical Catalyst Fund¡± open to universities and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The move follows the announcement in February by drug firm Pfizer that it was to close it research and development centre in Sandwich, Kent ¨C which raised concerns about the future of the UK pharmaceutical industry.

Mr Cameron is due to say that ¡°yes, we've got a leading science base; yes, we've got four of the world¡¯s top 10 universities; and yes, we have a National Health Service unlike any other.

¡°But my argument today is that these strengths alone are not enough, that to keep pace¡­we¡¯ve got to change radically - the way we innovate, the way we collaborate, the way we open up the NHS.¡±

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David Willetts, the universities and science minister, told the BBC that the government had a role to play ¡°because there¡¯s a lot of public money that goes to finance medical research and universities and of course, quite rightly, there a lot of public money that goes into the National Health Service. And we¡¯ve also got excellent, independent private businesses.

¡°But what we haven¡¯t done as well as we should have done in this country is link them all up, and that is what we are trying to do.¡±

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Mr Willetts said there should be a ¡°very clear route from the idea in the publicly-supported research lab through to the application to a patient in the publicly-supported NHS¡±.

He also said he wanted to bridge the ¡°valley of death¡±, whereby strong research is concluded but is without ¡°proof of concept¡± ¨C leaving it on a ¡°long shaky path to being commercialised¡±.

Mr Willetts said this left an ¡°appalling rate of attrition¡± for research.

The government¡¯s plans have caused some controversy, with critics arguing opening up NHS patient data to private firms could harm patient privacy.

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Deregulation of clinical trials by companies in hospitals is another element of the strategy, it has been reported.

john.morgan@tsleducation.com