MHRA changed the rules on manufacturing gene therapies—did UK Government know?

Yes

UK Government wants to lead the world in pharmaceutical R&D

We know from the document below that UK Government has a plan to lead the world in Life Sciences and pharmaceutical R&D:

Life Sciences Vision for UK - "Build Back Better: Our Plan for Growth"

I’ve previously written about this, highlighting this statement below, from the ‘Vision’:

“The collective ambition of the Government and the Sector is for the UK to build on the scientific successes and ways of working from COVID-19 to tackle future disease
challenges – silent pandemics – including cancer, obesity, dementia, ageing; securing
jobs and investment and becoming the leading global hub for Life Sciences.”

That’s pretty unambiguous then—the plan is to develop medicinal products based on genetic engineering (mRNA & viral vectors such as adenovirus), as the platform to lead the world.

You can the full ac…