Scientists have called for an extra £100 million a year boost to clinical research in the NHS.

"Clinical research in the UK has not kept pace with rapid advances in basic scientific discovery and this increasingly disadvantages patients," warned John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, launching a report from the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Meanwhile, in a letter delivered to Downing Street yesterday, 114 leading scientists blamed Tony Blair for a "backward slide" in the climate for debate over technologies such as genetic modification.