Open Pharma reached the finals of the Community Partnership of the Year Award category at this year’s prestigious Scrip awards. Open Pharma was launched in 2015 with the aim of bringing together stakeholders across medical publishing, including open science advocates, publishers, doctors, patients and pharmaceutical companies. By facilitating discussions and promoting education on key open science topics, and identifying easy steps that all stakeholders can take towards common goals, Open Pharma has been able to create real change.
But what is Open Pharma and how did it earn its place at this year’s Scrip awards? “Open Pharma was born out of the realization that the pharmaceutical industry has a responsibility to play a greater role in defining how research will be accessed and used in the 21st century. After all, it funds about half of all medical research,” said Paul Farrow, who leads Open Pharma’s collaborations with ORCID and other research identifiers. “Open Pharma has helped to connect our pharma colleagues with those who are driving the open science revolution. If pharma is to be a credible partner in medicine, it needs to define a shared vision of the future with other funders, regulators, publishers and innovators. Open Pharma has brought these stakeholders together to collaborate and achieve meaningful actions that will ultimately benefit patients.”
“I think that Open Pharma’s biggest strength is its foresight and versatility,” added Amy Williams, developer of the Open Pharma blog page and weekly digest. “We know what is happening in the open science landscape, and we know the people who are making the changes. This means that, when big announcements such as the recent Plan S open access policy are made, we are ready to help fit pharma into the picture. One of the major problems that we aim to fix is making sure industry has a seat at the table. In such a rapidly changing space, it is important that they don’t get left behind.”
The award was ultimately won by Beximco Pharma for their work with the Centre for Human Nutrition and the Sight and Life Global Nutrition Research Institute at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and the JiVitA Maternal and Child Research Institute of Johns Hopkins University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. This was a well-earned award, and Open Pharma feel proud to have been nominated beside such a prestigious project.
Open Pharma is grateful for the support it receives from its members and supporting institutions, without which the project would not be possible. If you want to find out more about Open Pharma, or are interested in following the latest news in open science, check out our blog site: https://openpharma.blog/. Here you can subscribe for weekly updates and get in touch. You can also follow us on Twitter @_OpenPharma.
