• Pharmaceuticals ‘Major Driver’ of Scotland’s Economy

    18Oct

    L-R: Andy Pwrie-Smith, Joe, Nicola Sturgeon, Chris Brinsmead

    L-R: Andy Pwrie-Smith, Joe, Nicola Sturgeon, Chris Brinsmead

    The continuing success of the Pharmaceuticals sector in Scotland is helping to drive the Scottish economy despite the recession, says Dundee MSP Joe FitzPatrick.

    Mr FitzPatrick, who chairs the Cross-Party Group on Life Sciences at the Scottish Parliament, was chairing a key meeting of the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries at the SNP Conference in Inverness, at which Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon was guest speaker.

    In his opening remarks at the meeting attended by leading pharma-industry executives in Scotland, Mr FitzPatrick said: “Pharmaceuticals, the biggest of the three strand that make up Life Sciences, is now worth £1.34 billion per year to the Scottish Economy and 11,000 jobs.

    “This makes it a major player in Scotland where close and early collaboration between the Scottish Government, the NHS and our Universities have led to Scotland becoming a major player on the global stage.

    “But we must not be complacent and we are constantly looking over our shoulder at Ireland, Singapore and the USA who are keen to muscle-in on our success.”

    Andy Powrie-Smith, the Director of ABPI Scotland said: “In Scotland we have the benefit of several initiatives which are helping to develop the sector. A year ago the First Minister announced the formation of the Life Sciences Advisory Board for Scotland (LiSAB).

    “This is co-chaired by the Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon with the involvement of the Scottish Government Ministers for skills and enterprise (Keith Brown and Jim Mather) and clear buy-in from across the Cabinet.

    “This is a key factor in helping Scotland to compete hard in world markets.”

    Chris Brinsmead, President of the ABPI, who also heads up AstraZenica pharma business in the UK, said:

    “Scotland’s not been alone in prioritising Life Sciences. Lots of countries have recognised that getting Life Sciences right is good for both the health of the nation but also its wealth. We’re competing directly with a number of other countries.

    “But Scotland has three uniquely Scottish collaborations which we would congratulate the Scottish Government on: The Scottish Medicines Consortium, LiSAB and The Scottish Academic Health Sciences Collaboration. These are helping us to work together to promote the sector.”

    Cabinet Secretary Nicola Sturgeon referred in her keynote speech to the excellence of academia in Scotland and the close synergy between Scotland’s Universities and the companies developing vaccines and medicines.

    “The Life Sciences sector is also one of the key sectors that we have identified on which Scotland can build a great and sustainable economic future.

    “The sector brings together academics and researchers, medicines and vaccines companies and the NHS. One of its great strengths is its people. Our medical universities continue to be world-leading. Our scientists remain on the cutting edge while the staff of NHS Scotland are increasingly playing their part in research and innovation as part of their care for patients. Now, for the first time, the sector is seeing the training of the support staff of the future through the Life Science Apprenticeships scheme.

    “This year we have been delighted to create the Scottish Life Sciences Advisory Board, which I co-chair. We are pleased that Ministers have been joined at the table by leading players from the pharmaceutical industry as well as counterparts from universities, biotechnology companies, research organisations, NHSScotland and Scottish Enterprise. The Board is taking forward a collaborative strategy for the sector in Scotland to create the right environment to enable our talent and technology to continue to prosper in the global life sciences marketplace.

    “The pharma-related business sector is important to Scotland because of its investment in people, knowledge, research and development, as well as medicines and vaccines manufacture.

    Commenting after the meeting, Joe FitzPatrick said: “This was an excellent event and a further example of how in Scotland we can all pull together to get things done. I have a significant constituency interest of course, in that Dundee is a big player in Scottish terms and I am very keen to see Dundee – and Scotland – realise the huge potential of the sector.

    “Some of the greatest vaccines the world has ever seen may be in development now and I want to see them developed in Scotland and manufactured here as well. This will bring large numbers of jobs. Of all three strands of Life Sciences, Bio-Tech, Medical technology and Pharmaceuticals, this is potentially the biggest in terms of the jobs it could bring.”

  • ‘Full Powers Needed’ to Tackle Airgun Crime

    12Oct

    Commenting on the latest in a series of incidents in Dundee involving serious injury as a result of airgun shootings, Dundee West MSP Joe FitzPatrick said today:

    “This is the latest in a series of horrific incidents in Dundee and we hope that the victim will recover fully from the attack. The serious damage that can be done by these pellet guns is all too obvious and they can be life-threatening. Yet the Scottish Government is unable to deal with these crimes effectively because the power to legislate on airguns is retained by Westminster.

    Air gun offences are a much more serious issue in Scotland than in the rest of the UK and the Scottish Government has made the case strongly over the last two years that we must be given the power to legislate and control licensing of these weapons and their availability.

    UK Government legislation differs widely in its treatment of real guns and weapons such as BB pellet guns and airguns which can also cause injuries every bit as life-threatening as ‘real’ guns. We want the power here in Scotland to look at a wide range of options to deal effectively with the issue of inappropriate use of air guns and BB pellet guns.

    “There is also a further danger to the public because like replica firearms, air guns look frighteningly real. So any report of an incident becomes a ‘firearms incident’ and will be dealt with by the police in that way; by a full armed response team. The police cannot possibly tell – even during an incident – if it is a BB gun, airgun or a real gun – and so the danger to the public, whether bystanders, victims, or the person in possession of these weapons is much greater as the police cannot take any chances that the weapon might not be a ‘real’ gun.

    “We must have full powers to tackle the problem of inappropriate use of airguns.”

  • New Figures Reveal 68% of Emergency Cases Alcohol-Related

    05Oct

    Dundee MSPs Shona Robison and Joe FitzPatrick said today it was ‘no surprise’ that 68% of calls to the emergency services between Friday night and Sunday morning are alcohol related. The Dundee duo recently spent a Friday night – Saturday morning night shift with emergency services’ staff, including a stint with a paramedic crew and saw the problems for themselves.

    The figures were released on the first day of Alcohol Awareness week.

    Shona Robison said: “Being on the night-shift exercise with frontline staff gave us first-hand experience of the impact of alcohol. And it came against a backdrop of information released by the Scottish Government which revealed the astonishing and disturbing alcohol-related death rate. Tayside deaths in which alcohol was a major factor is nearly twice the UK average, at 197% of the UK figure.

    “Then the Scottish Government released the figure of £2.25 billion per year – which is the cost to Scottish society of alcohol misuse, although of course the costs are far higher to individuals and to families whose lives can be ruined.
    “Drink related accidents, in which people end up so drunk they need hospitalisation are regrettably by far the largest number of incidents which A&E staff are required to deal with at weekends. Alcohol-induced violence cause many of the cases which police will be dealing with on a Friday or Saturday night.
    “Our emergency services should be available to help people who need them, not having to spend all their time mopping up damage caused by people who willfully abuse alcohol then get involved in incidents.
    Joe FitzPatrick said: “The Scottish Government is proposing radical action to tackle Scotland’s problems with alcohol, but it is also for each and every one of us to think about what we’re drinking and the effect that has on ourselves and public services.
    “Alcohol misuse costs Scottish society £2.25 billion a year. Recent reports estimating that 30% of ambulance journeys are alcohol related put the cost to the ambulance service at £30 million – today’s figures show it could be much more than that. On our night-shift, we heard that the majority of call-outs are alcohol-related, so I am not surprised that is is as high as 68% of calls.
    “At the start of alcohol awareness week I would urge everyone to look at their relationship with alcohol, how much they drink, and the impact it is having on their lives and on their communities.”

  • MSPs ‘Not Surprised’ At Failure of Labour’s ‘Hypocritical’ Parking Bill

    02Oct

    Dundee SNP MSPs Shona Robison and Joe FitzPatrick today commented on the collapse of Labour MSP Paul Martin’s Private Members Bill which aimed to ‘end all car parking charges across the NHS in Scotland’.

    Joe FitzPatrick said: “Paul Martin’s NHS Parking (Scotland) Bill was a deliberate attempt to mislead the public and pretend that Labour was doing something to end hospital car parking charges, when everyone knows it was Labour that brought in car parking charges at Ninewells. The public are also aware that the SNP Government has already abolished car parking charges at all Scottish hospitals except three, including Ninewells, where Labour had tied the Health Boards into long-term private car parking deals.
    “Paul Martin’s Bill would have lined the pockets of the directors of these private companies with millions of pounds taken from direct patient care to buy out long-terms contracts which Labour saddled us with in the first place.
    “Paul Martin’s Bill was an exercise in hypocrisy and opportunism. It aimed to abolish charges that Paul Martin and the last Labour Executive actually brought in themselves and which an SNP government have already scrapped.”
    Public Health Minister Shona Robison said: “The Scottish Government has abolished car parking charges at all Scottish hospitals with the exception of three, including Ninewells. The reason this car park still has charges is because Labour used the private finance initiative to fund them. To buy the contracts out would be hugely expensive. And Scotland is facing £500m cuts to its budget introduced by the UK Government.
    “These long-term PFI contracts – 30 years in the case of Vinci Park who run Ninewells – were signed in 2001 and supported by previous Labour Health Ministers. Andy Kerr, the Minister for Health and Community Care re-iterated the principle in several debates in 2004 and 2006 and in answers to many MSPs and the BMA, among other organisations, who called for car parking fees to be scrapped.
    “Labour MSPs who supported Paul Martin’s Bill are guilty of complete hypocrisy and opportunism. No Labour politician condemned the arrangements of the previous seven years under Labour/Lib Dem administrations when visitors and staff at the car park had to pay.
    “We raised a Freedom of Information Request to establish that no Labour politician had previously raised the issue at all when they were in power.
    “Labour politicians at no time called for the contracts to be ended, or ‘re-negotiated’ at public expense. They had eight years to do when they were in power but did not do so. Then when the Scottish Government succeeds in abolishing car parking charges, up pops Paul Martin with his opportunistic and hypocritical Bill. It has failed because people can see it for what it was, a deliberate attempt to mislead.”

Links:

Recent Posts