British and European red tape is impeding clinical trials of new drugs in the UK and threatening the lives of patients, leading medical researchers argued on Thursday as they called for an overhaul of regulations.

John Bell, president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, warned that the UK was losing out in the race for drug development, citing figures showing that its share of trials for medicines in late-stage clinical development had fallen from 6 per cent in 2002 to 2 per cent in 2007.