Precision medicine site to be opened

A CENTRE for excellence in precision medicine is to be established in a Yorkshire city.

The centre in Leeds is being set up as part of a drive to make the UK the most attractive place in the world in which to develop precision medicine tests and therapies.

Precision medicine uses diagnostic tests and data to understand a patient’s disease more precisely.

In doing so doctors can therefore select treatments which are said to be safer, more predictable and more cost-effective for the NHS.

It is one of six regional centres of excellence, including Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and Oxford, to be announced by UK Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson.

Each one will act as a hub for regional precision medicine work within the UK-wide network, co-ordinated from the Precision Medicine Catapult, the UK’s new national innovation centre.

The centre in Scotland will be led by the University of Glasgow and the Scottish Government.

Scottish Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “It is great news that Glasgow has been chosen as one of the regional centres of excellence for the Precision Medicine Catapult.

“Glasgow, and indeed Scotland, has a long established international reputation for innovation and world-leading research, with particular strengths and expertise in medicine and healthcare.

“This decision demonstrates how the Scottish Government’s investment of £124m in our Innovation Centres attracts further funding from other sources.”

Funding new cancer drugs was one of Prime Minister David Cameron’s key manifesto committments during the 2010 election.