Peakdale Molecular, a UK-based provider of drug discovery services to the pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostics and materials sciences, has told EPM that the country’s leading authorities in research and development believe that as the pharmaceutical sector is constantly changing, there should be pre-competitive focus on areas fundamental to the research industry bedrock. An event, hosted by Peakdale Molecular, challenged its delegates with focusing efforts and driving change in order to address the key problems within the pharmaceutical sector.
“We’ve seen huge changes within the pharmaceutical industry over the past number of years, and with that a shift in the type of drugs research undertaken,” said Paul Doyle, COO at Peakdale. “It’s no longer just about the science, it’s about wider issues. There are also problems surrounding the changing demographics, the threat of pandemics, and the increasing risk of the global population becoming resistant to antibiotics. All of these are very real threats, and yesterday’s event presented a great opportunity to not only discuss these problems, but to plant the seed within each of the delegates about how to action change for the better.”
The event brought together industry leaders from Pfizer, GSK, AZ, Sanofi, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Orion, Takeda, UCB and leading heads across academia to anticipate the future in drug discovery strategy. One of the focal points of the day’s discussion centred on the need for pre-competitive focus within early discovery.
“If we are to progress and move forward as an industry, we need to make some changes to the way that we work,” said Prof. Trevor Jones. “If we are to progress research and look to provide solutions to meet the changing population’s problems, we need to work collectively as a sector. The consensus yesterday was clear, we need greater collaboration on a pre-competitive basis in order to meet the problems of tomorrow.”
Discussions also focused on the role that university academics should play in drugs research. With a 2010 study showing that nearly a quarter of 252 FDA approved drugs produced in the US between 1997 – 2005 had their origins in US universities, one of the keynote addressed the steps that UK universities could take to emulate the success of this model.
Speakers also addressed the topic of personalised medicine – looking at the increases in screening for genetic markers. The session raised important questions around the economic criteria for introducing treatments, particularly in light of a constrained health service burdened with increasing health care costs. It also questioned the impact that lifestyle changes would have on the key diseases that any future government would consider to be beneficial/cost effective.
“We hope this event and its surrounding discussions act as catalyst for change,” said Doyle. “We wanted all parties to come out of the session with something to focus on, drive forward and to commit to actions that we can initiate and really make a difference. With the calibre of people that were in attendance yesterday, I really feel we achieved that and we will hopefully see the results of our efforts come to fruition over the coming year.”