Oxford PharmaGenesis attends Westminster Business Forum Keynote Seminar on UK health life sciences

23 June 2014

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Westminster Business forum logo edThe need for an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to drug development, healthcare policy and decision-making was a recurring theme of the Westminster Business Forum Keynote Seminar on UK health life sciences, attended by Oxford PharmaGenesis this week in Whitehall, London, UK. This strongly supports the HealthScience concept developed by Oxford PharmaGenesis, which combines the clinical and scientific aspects of healthcare with the economic, social, behavioural and political dimensions that determine the value of new healthcare interventions.

The seminar brought together representatives from the UK Government, civil service, public sector, academia and industry to discuss innovation, investment and global competitiveness in the UK health and life sciences sector. All parties emphasized the importance of building sustainable partnerships among key stakeholder groups (physicians, patient groups, payers, policy makers and the healthcare industry) from early in the development process, in order to ensure that innovative, value-adding medicines and healthcare interventions achieve approval, reimbursement and patient access.

The same principles apply to the drug development process. The strategy behind the foundation of the Francis Crick Institute in London, UK, was described during the seminar and provides a blueprint for the HealthScience approach – to stimulate interaction between the best researchers across the biological and physical sciences in sharing new data, methodologies and concepts to meet drug development challenges. A stated aim of the Institute is to foster close collaboration between academia, industry and the public sector and thus speed up the translation of discoveries made in the laboratory into treatments for disease.

Oxford PharmaGenesis has successfully implemented an integrated HealthScience approach in a number of therapy areas in the past year, including heart failure and schizophrenia. These initiatives have involved clinical specialists, scientists, health economists, patients and policy experts from around the world. A testament to their robust, evidence-based scientific approach is that the reports have been endorsed by top medical bodies, including the Heart Failure Association (heart failure initiative) and the European Brain Council and Royal College of Psychiatrists (schizophrenia initiative).

For further information please contact Dr Richard White, Commercial Director, Oxford PharmaGenesis richard.white@pharmagenesis.com