News
Thursday June 4 2026
National Preparedness Commission
Our chief executive Mark Samuels writes for the National Preparedness Commission on the difficult balance between medicines innovation and resilience.
Innovation Alone Won’t Protect Patients: The Case for Medicines Resilience
“I think the easiest people to fool are ourselves. Fooling ourselves may even be a necessary precondition for fooling others,” wrote Iain Banks in The Bridge.
Are we fooling ourselves into believing that the government’s Life Sciences Sector Plan – which prioritises tomorrow’s potential drugs over today’s medicine supply – will keep the NHS supplied in a volatile world?
In a world of finite taxpayer-funded health budgets, policymakers must balance maintaining today’s services with investing in tomorrow’s breakthroughs. Medicine supply is a classic example of this dilemma: do we protect access to the essential treatments patients rely on today, or prioritise the discovery of the next potential cure?
Author
Jeremy Durrant
Communications and Engagement Director
Jeremy oversees all strategic communications engagement and delivery on behalf of the association. A former journalist at the start of his career, he spent 16 years as a partner in a London-based international strategic communications consultancy leading and advising on high-profile media campaigns and running a risk and crisis practice.