New pre-clinical translational models hub to accelerate development of human-relevant models for medicines discovery

The announcement by Science Minister Chris McDonald of £20 million in government funding to establish a new pre-clinical translational models hub, based in Cambridge, represents a major step forward in how we develop and test medicines. This Hub is a concept the ABPI and our members have long championed and advocated for.
 
The UK has significant expertise in this area. This new hub will allow the UK to capitalise on its deep existing expertise to become a global leader in human-relevant pre-clinical model development.

Developing the hub
The original concept for the pre-clinical translational models hub was developed by leading scientists from pharmaceutical companies and contract research organisations across the ABPI’s membership, working together to identify and address one of the biggest technical challenges in medicines development: the lack of sufficiently predictive pre-clinical models.

Pre-clinical models, whether cellular structures in a dish, computer simulations, or animal models are used to understand disease, identify therapeutic targets, and assess whether a potential new medicine is safe and effective enough to progress to human clinical trials. 

One of the major drivers of attrition in medicines development is poorly predictive pre-clinical models that fail to replicate human biology and disease mechanisms effectively. As a result, more than a quarter of medicines that enter clinical development fail because the effects shown in pre-clinical models do not sufficiently replicate what happens in the human body. This is not just an industry problem. It is a challenge shared by academics investigating human biology and disease, by research funders, and by the NHS patients who ultimately need new treatments.

To address this, the ABPI proposed that a large-scale, coordinated translational research initiative was needed, termed the pre-clinical translational models hub. The vision driving the proposal was to bring together industry and academic researchers across the UK, working towards the unified objective of developing better, more human-relevant pre-clinical models. This vision has today become a reality. 

What the evidence tells us: our landscape review
To ensure that investment in the Hub is targeted, evidence-based and impactful, the ABPI commissioned a comprehensive landscape review of human-relevant pre-clinical model development in the UK. Published in February 2026, 'From models to medicines: a landscape review of human-relevant pre-clinical model development in the UK', was produced in partnership with the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).

The landscape review includes a new Translational Readiness Framework, a structured tool to evaluate how close academic pre-clinical models are to being ready for use in medicines development. 

The findings were striking and sobering. The majority of academic models assessed against the framework were not ready for industry use in medicines development, this was termed the “translational readiness gap.” The gap resulted from current scientific and technical limitations, such as the challenge of replicating tissue microenvironments, and infrastructure gaps, such as limited dedicated funding to enable the pull-through of models from academic development into industry use.

The industry's commitment to the 3Rs
The pharmaceutical industry has long been committed to the 3Rs principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal use in research and has invested heavily in developing pre-clinical models. The new Hub is a further demonstration of that commitment in action. By investing in the Hub and in the broader ecosystem of novel approaches to pre-clinical testing, the UK life sciences sector is showing that the move away from animal testing is not just an ambition, but it is something the industry is actively driving - because better models mean better science, and ultimately better outcomes for patients.

We look forward to working with all partners across the ecosystem to make this the pre-clinical translational models hub a success. The UK has the ambition, the talent and now the investment to become the world leader in human-relevant pre-clinical model development. The pharmaceutical industry will be at the heart of making that happen.