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John McDonnell backtracked on Jeremy Corbyn's plan for all UK drug research to be state funded today, saying his comments had been "misinterpreted."

He went on to explain a plan which differed wildly from what Corbyn announced just three days earlier.

But he insisted Mr Corbyn had not "misspoken", but had been misinterpreted.

At his campaign launch on Thursday, Mr Corbyn said medical research "shouldn't be farmed out to big pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer."

His challenger for the Labour leadership, Owen Smith , previously worked in corporate communications for Pfizer.

Mr Corbyn said: "I hope Owen will fully agree with me that our NHS should be free at the point of use, should be run by publicly employed workers working for the NHS not for private contractors

"And that medical research shouldn’t be farmed out to big pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and others but should be funded through the Medical Research Council."

Currently the Medical Research Council, the NHS body which performs drug research, spends around £506 million a year on research and development.

Pfizer alone spent more than £4.8 billion on research last year.

(Image: Reuters)

The top 10 pharma companies between them spent just under £50 billion, 100 times as much as the MRC and a little under half of the total budget of the NHS.

Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Mr McDonnell played down the announcement, saying Mr Corbyn had not misspoken, but had been "misinterpreted".

He said: "What happened was he was asked a question at a launch of one of his programmes [his leadership campaign launch], and he was arguing that research in this country - not just pharmaceutical research, but right the way across the piece, should be better managed and more effective.

"So when it came to pharmaceutical research, it should be better managed and better supported. In fact we should be increasing our resources."

He went on to suggest tax relief for pharma companies should be reviewed, because it is not used effectively.

The tax relief given to drug companies amounts to roughly £200m a year.

Host Andrew Marr put it to him that Corbyn's idea for the MRC to conduct all drug research is a "completely impossible ambition."

Mr McDonnell replied: "Of course."

But he added: "You interpret it as though it's taking money away from the companies. Actually it's not. It's saying you manage it more effectively so it's better used."

Marr pointed out that that had nothing to do with what Corbyn said.

Marr added: "He said the Medical Research Council would do that. They have a budget of less than a billion pounds. It costs well over a billion pounds to bring one single drug to market."

McDonnell replied: "He's looking, through the Medical Research Council to see how that money is then managed, and that will mean private companies undertaking that research.

"So he misspoke there?" asked Marr.

"No, I don't think he misspoke," McDonnell replied. "I think he's been misinterpreted."

It's the latest in a series of policies Mr Corbyn has announced in interviews, before the party had to later walk them back.

On the morning of the EU referendum result, Mr Corbyn called for Article 50 to be invoked immediately, triggering Britain's exit from the EU.

He told the BBC: "The British people have made their decision. We must respect that result and Article 50 has to be invoked now so that we negotiate an exit from the European Union."

But he softened his comments the following week, telling Newsnight: "I may not have put that as well as I should have done."

Mr Corbyn was also forced to backtrack on his views on 'shoot-to-kill' during a terror attack.

In November he told the BBC he was "not happy" with police operating a shoot-to-kill policy.

But he later told the Labour National Executive Committee such a policy posed "clear dangers to us all" - adding: "But of course I support the use of whatever proportionate and strictly necessary force is required to save life in response to attacks of the kind we saw in Paris.