Research into health conditions affecting babies and older children is facing a funding crisis, say leading doctors, who warn the shortfall is seriously hampering the development of new medicines.

Paediatricians from prominent hospitals, including Great Ormond Street and the Royal Marsden in London and St James’s Hospital in Leeds, accused the government of failing to fund its “fair share” of research. They said pharmaceutical companies were also paying too little attention to funding drug research for children because it was “much less profitable” than investing in medicines for adults.

The specialists fear the recession will worsen the crisis by cutting funds from charities - on which some children’s units are heavily dependent.

Their views have emerged from a poll of leading paediatric medical professionals commissioned by Sparks, the children’s medical research charity.

Almost four out of five respondents said the economic crisis will “harm seriously clinical care and research” into paediatric medicine. A similar number said the development of new medicines for babies and children had become a serious problem.

Read more at The Observer.

NHS hospital trusts have been slammed by the Department of Health over “wholly unacceptable” plans to cash in on the weak pound by exporting medicines intended for NHS patients.

The DH’s chief pharmceutical officer Keith Ridge has written to all NHS trusts, castigating a “small number” that have been considering exporting the drugs.

Dr Ridge said it was particularly irresponsible to export pharmaceuticals at a time when the supply chain was threatened by the swine flu pandemic.

He warned the plans were “wholly unacceptable” and “threaten patient care”.

A source close to the DH said senior NHS managers and financial directors had been “putting pressure” on hospital pharmacy departments to cash in on the burgeoning export market in UK medicines.

Read more at HSJ.