Pharma group says R&D tax credit change is ‘harming UK’

Medicines manufacturers and former vaccine tsar both warn of small life science companies moving abroad

Recent changes to the UK’s R&D tax credit system are a “major blow” to the country’s pharmaceutical sector that will harm UK leadership, according to a group representing medicines manufacturers.

In November last year the chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced he would cut R&D tax relief for small and medium-sized enterprises from April to tackle “abuse and fraud” in the system.