#044 - Meri Beckwith | Fully automated luxury NHS
From Anglofuturism by Tom Ough and Calum Drysdale
February 19, 2026 · 46 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the challenges and potential solutions for making Britain a biotech superpower, focusing on drug development and NHS reforms.
In part one, we explored why drug development costs are exploding and how better software could fix it. In part two, we get practical: what’s actually stopping Britain from becoming a biotech superpower, and what would it take to get there? Meri pulls no punches. The single hardest thing about building Lindus Health in the UK? Three-month notice periods. Want to staff up for new trials? Wait three months for people to work out their notice—during which they’re not exactly doing their best work. “It’s incredibly ineffective. It acts as a transfer from the most productive companies to the less productive companies people are resigning from.” Meanwhile, US contracts have no notice period or a couple of weeks max. But notice periods are just the start. The real bottleneck is that Britain produces excellent early-stage research but can’t capture the value because we’ve made ourselves an unattractive market for drug sales. NICE’s role has become “get the lowest price possible, even if that means greatly delaying when the drug is distributed in the UK.” We’ll spend five years negotiating a thousand pounds off a course of treatment while people literally die. The solution? Turn the NHS…
People in this episode
Hosts: Tom Ough, Calum Drysdale
Guest: Meri Beckwith
Topics covered
- biotech
- drug development
- NHS reform
- healthcare policy
- UK pharmaceutical market
- clinical trials
Keywords
- drug development costs
- biotech superpower
- NHS
- clinical trials
- pharmaceutical market
- dexamethasone
- NICE
- Lindus Health
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Lindus Health, NICE, NHS
Products: dexamethasone
Places: Britain, America, UK, US
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