Category: 3. Business

Ministers are under growing pressure to end the “secrecy” around the UK’s deal with the US over the cost of medicines, which critics claim is “a Trump shakedown of the NHS”.

MPs from Labour and several opposition parties want the government to publish its impact assessment of the agreement it reached last month with Donald Trump’s administration.

Under the deal the UK will pay more for new medicines and let the NHS spend more on life-extending medicines in return for British pharmaceutical exports to the US avoiding tariffs.

The deal has sparked concern among health experts that it could cost the UK government and the NHS billions extra a year to fulfil those pledges by the end of the deal in 2035.

A cross-party group of Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and Scottish Nationalist MPs is meeting on Wednesday evening to discuss how to compel Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and Peter Kyle, the business and trade secretary, to publish the government’s assessment of how the deal could affect the UK. It has been organised by the ex-Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

McDonnell said: “There are real worries that the US/UK deal will result in significantly higher drug costs, which will in turn result in resources being drawn from the investment in NHS services.

“The government has a responsibility to publish a full impact assessment of the deal on the NHS budget and services.”

He wants ministers to commission a separate “open and transparent independent” impact assessment of the deal, to ensure that full details of the potential implications become public.

The cross-party group of MPs will also discuss seeking a Commons debate and vote on the deal and inviting the Commons health, science and business select committees to undertake inquiry into how the deal was reached and its potential consequences.

The department of health and social care (DHSC) and Liz Kendall, the science, innovation and technology secretary, have insisted that the deal will cost only an extra £1bn between 2025/26 and 2028/29. They have admitted that the costs will rise after 2028/29, but have not given any estimates of that.

However, ministers have declined to put any figures on the costs involved beyond 2028/29 or which government department will foot the bill. They have not provided those details when answering parliamentary questions from Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs and in correspondence with the science, innovation and technology committee.

As part of the deal, the government have committed to doubling the UK’s spend on new drugs from 0.3% of GDP to 0.6% by 2035, which will entail continued increases in spending between now and then.

Last week, in its response to a freedom of information request by campaign group Global Justice Now, the DHSC refused to provide information on long-term costs or provide copies of correspondence it has had with Kyle and Kendall’s departments. The information sought was exempt under freedom of information legislation, it said.

Tim Bierley, Global Justice Now’s policy and campaigns manager, who submitted the FOI request, said: “The government is refusing to give the public or MPs any useful information about the true costs of this deal, despite being forced to admit the financial burden will grow year on year. With all this secrecy, you have to wonder: what have ministers got to hide?”

The “landmark” deal will safeguard UK patients’ access to medicines, boost pharmaceutical investment in Britain and keep UK drug exports to the US free of tariffs, ministers stress.

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, strongly criticised ministers’ refusal to disclose key information about the deal, which he last month called “a Trump shakedown of the NHS”.

“This is an act of surrender by Keir Starmer, who refuses to stand up to the most corrupt US president in history. His weakness means that NHS spending is being set by a foreign regime, not the British people”, said Davey.

“It’s an insult to patients suffering on crammed hospital corridors who have been told time and time again there is no money for the improvements they need.

“The government won’t even tell us what the impact will be on health services, or on our economy. It is clearly just a desperate ploy to placate Trump.”

The DHSC has been approached for comment.

Gyms, local shops, restaurants, nightclubs and pharmacies have criticised the government for not extending business rates support beyond pubs and live music venues.

The Treasury announced on Tuesday that every pub and live music venue in England will get 15% off its new business rates bill from 1 April, worth an average of £1,650 for each, with bills frozen in real terms for a further two years.

However, there was no support announced for other sectors affected by the changes to rates, although there will also be a review of the methodology used to calculate how much hotels should pay alongside a parallel review for pubs.

Leading trade bodies said that those overlooked still faced “severe challenges”. They accused ministers of having “suffocated employment opportunities” and claim the decision to focus help just on pubs was “simply outrageous”.

Michael Kill, boss of the Night Time Industries Association which represents nightclubs, restaurants and bars, said the support amounted to “little more than a drop in the ocean when set against the reality of the current tax system and the cumulative damage inflicted by the last two budgets”.

He said his sector had “been savaged by rising business rates, VAT, alcohol duty, employment costs and licensing fees”, asking: “This limited, narrowly targeted relief raises a serious question: what will this actually do for the hospitality and night-time economy as a whole?”

UKHospitality, which represents thousands of restaurants, pubs, hotels and cafes, said: “The rising cost of doing business and business rates increases are a hospitality-wide problem that needs a hospitality-wide solution.”

Its chair, Kate Nicholls, said: “The reality remains that we still have restaurants and hotels facing severe challenges from successive [chancellor’s] budgets.”

She said that without “substantive solutions that genuinely reduce their costs” those businesses would face “increasingly tough decisions on business viability, jobs and prices for consumers”.

Henry Gregg, the chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association which represents 6,000 independent community pharmacies, said the increase in rates for its members would push some “to the brink of collapse”.

“It’s simply outrageous that the government should offer business rate relief to pubs but ignore pharmacies that play a vital health role on thousands of our high streets,” he said.

Gyms and other sports operators were also concerned at being left out. Huw Edwards, the chief executive of the trade body ukactive, said: “Gyms, pools, and leisure centres are the driving force of physical activity in the UK, with over 600 million visits in the last recorded year – taking pressure off the NHS and fuelling consumer spending, employment and high street renewal.

“Instead of supporting this industry success story, the government has done the opposite and made these essential community facilities absorb two regressive budgets that have piled on operational costs and suffocated employment opportunities.”

He said business rates for some of its members would rise by as much as 60%, forcing many “to increase prices for consumers at a time of growing health inequalities”.

Nicolas Denby from the independent gym Sleven Fitness in Vauxhall who works with 150 independent gyms, mostly in London and the south-east, on the GymSync fitness competition, said their average uplift in business rates bill this year was expected to be 145%.

“That’s ridiculous. It has to be paid if the business does well or not. It’s a really difficult situation,” Denby said.

While many large retail chains, including Waterstones, have said their bills will not rise overall, the chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores, James Lowman, said: “Local shops will feel neglected and dismissed by this government today as they are passed over for additional support.

“For those facing rates increases in April of thousands of pounds, difficult decisions will have to be made about investment, employment opportunities and the services that are provided to customers.”

The government was contacted for comment.

Nine-month findings show mean improvement in Composite Unified Huntington’s Disease Rating Scale from baseline of +0.64 points, compared to natural history expected worsening of cUHDRS in symptomatic patients of -0.73 points over nine months, based on propensity score weighting.

Skyhawk also announces SKY-0515’s Phase 2/3 FALCON-HD trial has expanded worldwide. Skyhawk has now dosed more than 90 patients.

BOSTON, Jan. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Skyhawk Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel small molecule therapies to modulate critical RNA targets, today announces positive results from the nine month interim analysis of the Company’s investigational treatment for Huntington’s disease (HD) with SKY-0515.

Treatment with SKY-0515 results in dose-dependent reductions of mHTT protein in blood of 62% at the 9mg dose, and dose-dependent PMS1 mRNA reduction of 26%. PMS1 is a key driver of somatic CAG repeat expansion and HD pathology. SKY-0515 has also demonstrated excellent central nervous system exposure and been generally safe and well tolerated.

At three, six and nine months, patients receiving SKY-0515 in the Part C patient cohort of the Phase 1 clinical trial of SKY-0515, demonstrate mean Composite Unified Huntington’s Disease Rating Scale (cUHDRS) improvement from baseline. At nine months, in a pooled analysis, this improvement is +0.64 points compared to expected worsening at nine months of cUHDRS in symptomatic patients of -0.73 points, based on propensity score weighting using Enroll-HD and TRACK-HD.

“I am very encouraged by these safety and early efficacy data from SKY-0515’s Phase 1 Part C trial in patients, showing divergence in cUHDRS away from expected natural history deterioration at the three, six, and nine month prespecified analyses,” said Ed Wild, Professor of Neurology at University College London. “SKY-0515 continues to reduce mHTT protein to the greatest extent demonstrated by any therapeutic tested to date in patients, with clinical and biomarker data showing the drug is well tolerated at all doses tested. SKY-0515’s ability to reduce both mHTT and PMS1 offers a potent combination for treating Huntington’s disease via two of its core pathogenic mechanisms. These open-label trial results, due to be validated in the ongoing placebo-controlled FALCON-HD trial, give an expectation of meaningful impact for people living with HD across the world – for whom an orally administered huntingtin-lowering treatment such as SKY-0515 will be truly transformative.”

“Our goal for our Phase 1 study was to establish safety and biomarker activity,” said Sergey Paushkin, Head of R&D at Skyhawk Therapeutics, “and the continued strength of SKY-0515’s biomarker response in our nine month interim data analysis – and the improvement in the potential endpoint, cUHDRS, compared to a worsening of the cUHDRS score in the natural history data for patients – underscores SKY-0515’s potential as a best in class disease-modifying therapy for HD. These interim data represent an important milestone for SKY-0515 and highlight the power of Skyhawk’s platform to deliver first-in-class small molecules for devastating diseases with no approved disease-modifying therapies.”

Huntington’s disease is a rare, hereditary, and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder that affects over 40,000 symptomatic patients in the United States, with hundreds of thousands estimated to be affected worldwide. There are currently no approved treatments which slow or halt disease progression. SKY-0515 is an orally-administered, investigational small molecule RNA modulator developed through the company’s novel RNA-modulating platform, SKYSTAR^®. SKY-0515 therapeutically reduces both HTT protein and PMS1 protein. PMS1 is an additional key driver of somatic CAG repeat expansion and HD pathology and should complement the benefits of reducing mutant HTT.

Skyhawk also announces today that its SKY-0515 Phase 2/3 FALCON-HD trial, open at twelve sites in Australia and New Zealand, has expanded worldwide. Skyhawk has now dosed more than 90 patients with SKY-0515. 

SKY-0515 is the first Skyhawk drug in clinical trials.

Skyhawk expects to put additional small molecule drugs to treat rare neurological diseases with no approved disease modifying therapies in the clinic by the end of 2027.

About SKY-0515’s Phase 1 Clinical Study 
SKY-0515’s Phase 1 clinical trial is a first-in-human trial designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of SKY-0515 in healthy volunteers and individuals with early-stage Huntington’s disease (HD). The trial is separated into three parts. Parts A and B evaluated SKY-0515 in Healthy Volunteers. Part C is a double-blind placebo-controlled parallel design study of two dose levels of SKY-0515 and placebo in individuals with early-stage HD (HD-ISS Stage 1, 2, or mild Stage 3) for 84 days followed by a 12 month extension of active treatment where all participants will receive either a low or high dose of SKY-0515 in a blinded fashion. The objectives of the study include evaluating mutant HTT protein and PMS1 mRNA. The first patients were dosed in SKY-0515’s Part C in January 2025. Enrollment in Phase 1C of the SKY-0515 trial is now complete.

About SKY-0515’s Phase 2/3 FALCON-HD Clinical Study 
FALCON-HD (NCT06873334) is a Phase 2/3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose ranging study to evaluate the pharmacodynamics, safety, and efficacy of SKY-0515 in 120 participants with Stage 2 and early Stage 3 HD across 12 sites in Australia and New Zealand, and 400 participants with Stage 2 and early Stage 3 HD in 40+ worldwide sites. Eligible patients will receive a once-daily oral dose of SKY-0515 at one of three dose levels or placebo, for a treatment period of at least 12 months. The trial aims to assess the potential of SKY-0515 to modulate RNA splicing and reduce mHTT and PMS1 proteins, which are implicated in the pathology of Huntington’s disease. Additional information about FALCON-HD, including participating sites and eligibility criteria, can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov and www.FALCON-HD.com.

About Skyhawk Therapeutics
Skyhawk Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company which uses its proprietary platform, SKYSTAR^®, to discover and develop small molecule RNA modulating therapies for the world’s most intractable diseases. For more information visit www.skyhawktx.com.

Skyhawk Contact
Maura McCarthy
Head of Corporate Development
[email protected]

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Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/710814/Skyhawk_Therapeutics_Logo.jpg

This means that the charging infrastructure is being continuously expanded and adapted to meet growing demand. The aim is to reduce emissions and contribute to more sustainable mobility – both in the corporate context and in the everyday working lives of employees.

Electromobility as a contribution to reducing emissions
Since 2024, the HENSOLDT Group has been recording greenhouse gas emissions along the entire value chain, known as Scope 3 emissions. These include emissions from business travel and daily commuting. The expansion of the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is an important lever for reducing these emissions in the long term.

Steadily increasing use since 2021
The trend towards electric mobility is clear: since the first charging stations were installed in 2021, the amount of energy consumed has risen steadily – from around 30 MWh to 315 MWh in 2025. This development underlines the increasing acceptance of electric vehicles among HENSOLDT employees and confirms that HENSOLDT is on the right track.

Charging is carried out exclusively with industrial electricity from 100% renewable energies. We thus offer our employees a sustainable and attractive addition to charging at home or at public charging points.

Working together towards sustainable mobility
The continuous expansion of the charging infrastructure shows that electric mobility is firmly established at HENSOLDT. HENSOLDT welcomes the increasing use of electric vehicles and thanks all employees who are actively contributing to reducing emissions by switching to electric mobility.