Cancer charity cuts research funding by £45m due to Covid-19

The coronavirus pandemic threatens to set back progress against a disease which will affect half the population of the UK during their lifetime, writes Peter Stubley

A scientist works at the Cancer Research UK laboratories in Cambridge (Getty/Cancer Research UK)

The world’s largest independent cancer research charity has slashed its budget by a further £45m after a “devastating” drop in income during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cancer Research UK (CRUK) said the cuts mean dozens of potentially life-saving projects will not receive funding this year, slowing down future breakthroughs for people with the disease.

It also “seriously reduces” the chances of meeting the charity's target of 75 per cent of people surviving cancer by 2034.

With Covid-19 forcing the closure of its shops and the cancellation of fundraising events, the charity now faces a potential £300m decline in fundraising income over the next three years.

CRUK warned further cuts will follow in the spring unless charitable donations plug the gap or the government steps in with financial support.

Dr Iain Foulkes, CRUK’s executive director of research and innovation, said: “As a charity, we fund around half of the UK’s publicly funded cancer research. Medical research charities like Cancer Research UK are the life blood of research and development in the UK, and we have all felt the devastating blow of the pandemic on our income.

“The recent government spending review was a step in the right direction for cancer services in the UK, but we need urgent clarification to what measures are being put in place to support medical research charities through the Life Sciences Charity Partnership Fund. As a country that relies so heavily on charity-funded research, the UK risks weakening its reputation as a world-leader in science if charities don’t receive the right support.”

CRUK – which funded research worth £455m in the financial year 2019-20 – had already cut its current grants by £44m at the start of the coronavirus crisis and has been unable to fund any new clinical trials this year.

The new £45m cuts to “response-mode funding” announced today amount to around half of what is normally expected to be spent at this time. It is estimated it will lead to around 24 fewer programmes, 68 fewer projects, 12 fewer fellowships and around 328 fewer scientists working on the research.

The cuts also means fewer opportunities for researchers such as CRUK’s chief clinician Professor Charles Swanton, who began his career with a junior fellowship in 2003 and is now leading a multimillion pound flagship project looking at how lung cancer evolves from diagnosis to relapse.

Other scientists funded by the charity have pioneered the development of cancer drugs known as Parp inhibitors and boosted breast cancer survival over the past 40 years through the discovery of the BRCA genes.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of CRUK, said: “Covid-19 has slowed down our efforts to beat cancer. The closures of our charity shops and the cancellation of our fundraising events across the country means we have less money available for life-saving research, but we will never stop.

“We still have great ambition, are still the largest charitable funder of cancer research in the world, and will continue to fund the very best scientists in the UK and across the globe. We have always relied on the generous donations of all our supporters, but we need them now more than ever so we can continue to achieve these ambitions and so that together, we can still beat cancer.”