Over the last 10 years, UK spending on medicines has fallen from 15% of the NHS budget to 9%, while the rest of the developed world spends between 14% and 20%.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies have been looking to invest in the US following Trump’s threats of sky-high tariffs on drug imports.
In July, AstraZeneca said it would invest $50bn (£36.9bn) in the US on “medicines manufacturing and R&D [research and development]”.
Earlier this week Merck, which had already begun construction on a site in London’s King’s Cross which was due to be completed by 2027, said it no longer planned to occupy it.
The multi-national business, known as MSD in Europe, said it would move its life sciences research to the US and cut UK jobs, blaming successive governments for undervaluing innovative medicines.