AstraZeneca chief executive has warned that the UK is “falling behind” in cancer care and questioned the government’s commitment to innovation, after an ovarian cancer drug developed by British scientists was deemed too expensive for use in the National Health Service.

Pascal Soriot said he was “incredibly disappointed” by the decision to reject the company’s Olaparib drug. The medicine, which stemmed from research at Cambridge university, was hailed by cancer charities as an important breakthrough when it was approved by regulators last year.

Mr Soriot said that the UK government was failing to “connect the dots” between the country’s strong science base and its health system. “How can a government say they want this country to be an innovation centre with a strong focus on life sciences and yet when we discover new innovation it doesn’t find a market?

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