NHS patients across the UK are gaining faster access to life‑changing medicines and treatments, as new figures show the government is on track to meet ambitious clinical trial delivery targets.
Newly published UK Clinical Research Delivery key performance indicators reveal that the average time to set up a commercial interventional clinical trial has fallen from 169 days to 122 days, compared with the same six‑month period last year.
The milestone reflects a sustained programme of reform and a combined £137 million investment aimed at cutting red tape, modernising systems and strengthening research capacity across the NHS.
Reducing trial set‑up times allows patients to access new medicines, vaccines, and therapies sooner, rather than waiting months – or even years – for administrative processes to catch up with scientific innovation.
Trials that previously took close to a year to open are now going live in a matter of months, giving patients earlier access to treatments that may previously have been out of reach.
The impact is being felt in communities across the country, with patients increasingly among the first in the world to receive innovative therapies.
Several recent trials highlight the progress being made:
- A major international COPD study, investigating treatments for a lung condition that makes breathing difficult, enrolled its first patients in just 81 days — around half the time previously expected. A specialist NHS team in Bradford achieved this by removing unnecessary bureaucracy.
- A trial testing a new cancer treatment for advanced bowel cancer opened in 70 days, with a UK patient becoming the first in Europe to receive the treatment.
- The £42 million TRANSFORM prostate cancer screening trial — the most ambitious of its type in decades, co‑funded by Prostate Cancer UK and the NIHR — progressed from regulatory submission to consenting its first participant in under 150 days.
Together, these examples show that faster trial set‑up is benefitting both early‑phase innovation and large‑scale national research programmes.The UK is also securing more global and European first patient enrolments than ever before, reinforcing its position as a world‑leading destination for clinical research.
Since April 2025, the UK has recorded 29 global firsts and 54 European firsts for the 2025/26 year.
This means more NHS patients are among the earliest anywhere to benefit from cutting‑edge treatments.
Since April 2025, the government has led a fully funded programme of action to accelerate clinical research delivery.
Key reforms include:
- A UK‑wide Study Set‑Up Plan, led by DHSC on behalf of all four nations, standardising and mandating commercial contracting processes.
- Regulatory reviews now typically completed in under 60 days, with 99% of studies approved within target timelines.
- More than £137 million invested in research infrastructure and reform, including:
Dr Zubir Ahmed, Health Innovation and Safety Minister, said:
“The UK has always had world-class science and outstanding NHS clinicians. Today’s figures show we are now matching that excellence with a system that slashes red tape to get trials up and running at the speed patients deserve.
“Behind every clinical trial is a person – someone living with a serious illness, waiting for a treatment that could change their life. Getting that treatment to them sooner is real hope arriving sooner for patients and their families.
“Today’s progress is something to be proud of – but we know we can go further and we intend to. This is exactly what our 10 Year Health Plan looks like in practice: a government that sets ambitious targets, backs them with real investment, and delivers. We are not stopping here – 150 days is a milestone, not a finish line, and we remain committed to reducing this further.”
From this month, a proportion of NIHR research funding will be directly linked to national performance targets, rewarding research centres for delivering results.
Research has also been formally embedded into the NHS Medium Term Planning Framework, making participation in research a core part of routine care rather than an optional activity. The NIHR Industry Hub, launched in October 2025, now operates as a single front door for companies running trials in England, coordinating NHS research infrastructure into one clear national offer.
The UK is also pursuing a 14‑day initial MHRA review target for early‑phase trials, which would place it among the fastest regulatory systems globally.
Global sponsors consistently highlight the UK’s advantages, including:
- High‑quality scientific expertise
- A responsive and trusted regulatory environment
- The NHS as a unified national research platform
- Increasingly coordinated delivery at national level
The growing number of global and European firsts demonstrates these strengths in practice.
This milestone forms part of a wider UK life sciences success story, including:
- The Health Research Data Service, launching this year to provide secure, streamlined access to NHS data at scale
- A newly finalised UK‑US pharmaceutical partnership, improving access to innovative medicines on both sides of the Atlantic
- Updated NICE cost‑effectiveness thresholds, unlocking a new pipeline of cancer treatments
For patients, the result is earlier access to cutting‑edge care, and a health system better positioned to turn scientific breakthroughs into real‑world benefit.
Image credit: iStock
