Tamsin Berry, Head of Policy and Partnerships at AreteiaTx and Partner at Population Health Partners, spoke of the commonalities of the participants’ careers, emphasising their wealth of experience, global leadership, and dedication to innovation and patient outcomes. Speakers were Susan Rienow, Country President UK at Pfizer and President of the ABPI, Marie-Andrée Gamache, Country President of Novartis UK and Ireland, and Dr Antonio Payano, Chief Executive Officer at Bayer UK & Ireland.

Tamsin started by posing a thought-provoking question to the participants, asking them what had excited them the most in the past five years.

Antonio responded by acknowledging the global collaboration in response to COVID-19 and technological advancements. He also shared a personal achievement of working in Central Africa to get 100 million women into the workforce.

Marie-Andrée focused on the UK, praising the national collaboration on cardiovascular and breast cancer initiatives. She emphasised the need for impactful work that doesn’t merely collect dust on a shelf, expressing optimism about the industry’s potential to achieve significant goals through collaboration.

Susan highlighted the industry’s scientific response to the pandemic, addressing global supply chain issues, and stressed the importance of partnerships in achieving extraordinary outcomes. She said, “I am evangelistic about the potential for us to be able to get to a place in the UK where we can do extraordinary things where system partners work towards a common goal.”

The conversation shifted to taboo topics in the industry that need addressing for success. Antonio pointed to the surprising issue of drug pricing, highlighting its impact on the value of people’s lives over time stating, “Now because of inflation people’s lives are worth 60% less of what they used to be when pricing was originally set up 20-30 years ago.” Marie-Andrée discussed the need for a “triple win” agreement emphasising, “A solution has to work for the NHS, it has to work for patients, and it has to benefit the company. It’s okay to have a common goal.” Susan brought attention to the public’s limited awareness of the pharmaceutical manufacturing process, “There’s a reality check where most people don’t think very much about who makes their medicines or how they come to be on a day-to-day basis.”

When asked what they would do if they were the prime minister, Antonio advocated for viewing healthcare as an investment rather than a cost, recognising the incredible potential of the country. Marie-Andrée envisioned running the country like a CEO, prioritising data-driven decisions and addressing disparities in patient outcomes. “Patients deserve more, and it is not acceptable that if I live in a different country, I have a 20 year life span difference.” Susan echoed these sentiments and added a focus on prevention and a whole-system, mission-led approach, drawing on the effective collaboration observed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fireside chat delved into the speakers’ excitement about global and national collaborations, tackled taboo issues in the industry, and explored their visions if they were to lead the country, emphasising healthcare as an investment and the need for data-driven decision-making and prevention strategies.

Session 2: Can the NHS and pharma work together to solve the burden of long-term diseases?

With long term health conditions affecting about a third of the population and taking about 80% of the NHS’s current spend, Tim Ringrose, Chief Executive Officer at Cognitant, and panellists; Ian Philip, Founder of Age Care Technologies, Sheuli Porkess, Chief Medical Officer and Business Unit Director at Precisia Life Sciences, a C2-Ai business, Rina Newton, Co-Founder of Code Clarity, Joep Hufman, Country Medical Director UK & Ireland at Bayer Pharma, and Stephanie Campbell, Founder & Chief Executive Officer at OKKO Health, asked the question, can industry and the NHS work together to productively solve the burden of long term diseases.

Ian began by talking about the historical relationship between the pharma industry and the NHS. He highlighted, “The system in government is complex but nevertheless it is possible to form a concordant partnership that would be a benefit to patients, benefit the public, benefit the exchequer and be beneficial to industry, providing that it is mission led and integrates all parties.”

Joep agreed and highlighted the importance of maintaining the partnership as a “pendulum that swings that needs to be rebuilt every few years.” He added, “Everything works well for a few years and then from either the NHS side, the pharma side or for a legal matter we let the partnership dwindle and all the fruits which it bore get lost.”

Rina spoke about a positive example of this collaboration in the diabetes space, where 10 or so companies that were each other’s competitors, got together and worked towards a common goal. “It’s about building an ecosystem where collaboration is the norm.” This was a message that was emphasised by Stephanie who spotlighted an example in eye care where patients who received successful treatment did not have an improvement in their wellbeing 10 years later. “To look at a patient centric approach to eye care, pharma works with patients to optimise visual outcomes, but we’ve also got to work with NHS partners to optimise the treatment pathway that isn’t just an injection in their eye but looking at what other services that patient needs.”

Continuing the discussion about patient empowered health journeys and using technology to facilitate this, Sheuli spoke about the relationship between both pharma and the NHS using technology to help triage waiting lists and how it can work with patients who are waiting for treatment to prepare for their operations by improving their general health.

Towards the end of the discussion, panellists highlighted the potential of social media as a communication tool and noted the need for more to be done to tackle miscommunication and to make the most of media that people already consume.

Session 4: Technology – a new link in a broken supply chain?

The Covid pandemic brought a sharp focus on the fragility of supply chains. Our panel ‘Technology – a new link in a broken supply chain’ facilitated by Managing Director of Royal Health, Stefan Kulik, and featuring Richard Vellacott, Chief Executive Officer at BiologIC Technologies, Jagjit Singh Srai, Director of Research at the University of Cambridge, Manjit Jhooty, Chief Executive Officer of Jhoots Group, and Hui Yi Tee, Business Development Manager at Nanoform, answered the questions; Has this driven a lasting trend for onshoring manufacturing capabilities and embracing new tech to streamline supply? How are distribution models changing? And how quickly are we moving to greener supply chains?

Stefan started the panel by bringing focus on how the use of technology can be disrupted and embraced to make things better for the future. Richard focused on the importance that innovations in engineering biology will have but cautioned “The productivity crisis we have at the moment is struggling to get basic science at the lab bench into industrial scale manufacturing, but I do see that in the next decade there is going to be a fundamental shift in supply chains and big industrial companies are really examining their source of materials at the moment. Whether it’s Lego looking at sustainable sources for their plastics, down to cosmetics through to pharmaceuticals.”

Hui spoke about strategies across the industry that are changing supply chains and started by drawing attention to hesitancy in the pharma industry and taking a risk to try something new. “At the end of the day no matter how robust a supply chain is, no matter how well something is manufactured, if it doesn’t get to the patient in the way it needs to then what is the point?”

Jagjit then discussed the need to invest in supply chains in the UK and that from a customer perspective, all they care about is why they haven’t got their tablets. “The communication bit is important, so I think digital enablement is going to be important.”

Following on, Manjit spoke about the paradox of too much inventory in the system but still stock outages. “The fundamental issue is that there is very little transparency on where inventory sits and unlike Amazon Prime, where I know where my product is until it gets to my door, in the pharmaceutical industry there is very little clarity on where the product is and when it is going to arrive.” Manjit also finished by questioning how our current system will cope with niche patient populations or personalised medicines.

Session 5: Big CDMO, Small CDMO

‘Big CDMO, Small CDMO’ facilitated by Christophe Le Ret, Global Marketing Director at Umicore, and featuring Steven Facer, Vice President of Business Development at Adare Pharma Solutions, Martin Doorbar, Chief Development Officer; Non Clinical at Ellipses Pharma, Claire Thompson, Chief Executive Officer at Agility Life Sciences, Giuliano Perfetti, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director at Jubilant Biosys, and Valeria Ciarnelli, Senior Director of Product Development at Quotient Sciences, addressed the question of how the modern manufacturing landscape will be shaped due to the rise of ‘mega CDMOs’ and what the resulting implications are for smaller and more specialised CDMOs.

Giuliano started the panel with his thoughts on the two major factors in this industry trend: the historic origin of CDMOs from the acquisition of former big pharma sites, and the natural desire of the bigger players wanting to become a one stop shop for big pharma. Claire then offered insight by looking at what is it that the client needs. “Three c’s: Capability, can you solve their problem? Capacity: can you do it quickly and Cost.”

Martin spoke from the perspective of using CDMOs stating, “We’ve tended to use larger organisations because they have that long runway to commercialisation but when they don’t have the skill set you need plug and play partnerships with smaller boutiques to help solve very specific problems along the way.

“I believe in integration,” followed Valeria. “The secret of a successful partnership is creating collaborative teams.”

On the decision of where and who to manufacture with, Steven spoke about organisations chasing cost savings and the industry moving its capabilities from western markets to China. Giuliano added, “We moved our geographies without solving the problem and we are just exporting our pollution. I think to export is wrong in principle and is not anymore, an option. We need to come back and invest in new technology to make sustainable production.”

The panel finished with Christophe asking if there is the same risk of a disruptor, such as AI, like Tesla was for automobile industry, coming into the pharmaceutical industry? Giuliano replied, “The true question is how we can really benefit from this disruptor and in our organisation really accelerate development.”

Session 2: Britain’s Got Talent

As our ability to treat diseases becomes ever more advanced, the skills gap across the pharmaceutical sector continues to grow. Our panel ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ answered the question: how can we upskill our workforce, better manage talent, and encourage diversity to drive innovation? Facilitated by Jane Kennedy, Chief Business Officer at Discovery Park, and featuring panellists Fiona Marston, Chair & Chief Executive Officer of Erebagen, Nick Smith, Regional Operations Manager at Scitech, Amina Udechuku, Head of Vaccines, UK at Takeda UK, and Andrew Croydon, Director, Education and Examination Policy & Partnerships at the ABPI.

Jane began the panel by asking how unique is the UK’s talent base and how can it be leveraged to maintain our science superpower status? Andrew spoke about the importance of telling the story and thinking about perception, “This is an innovation-based industry, the fact is we want a diverse workforce because with that comes diverse thought.”

Amina continued talking about opportunities and widening participation, “Equity is about giving people what is fair to come to the race in the same place and having the tools that are necessary to compete with others in the space”.

Fiona then spoke about the challenges of inspiring and recruiting a diverse workforce, explaining, “In the hospital I’m a board member of, we have a saying that is ‘a face like mine’ and that means going out and showing students that who you are and where you come from, doesn’t actually stand as a barrier to what you can achieve.”

The panel then focused on recognising non-traditional routes into the life science industry, celebrating the skills and talents of young people and the importance of creating parity and access into organisations throughout somebody’s career.

Session 4: Trialling a new approach to clinical trials

Starting the panel, Lord James O’Shaughnessy, Senior Partner at Newmarket Strategy, gave an update of the government review of commercial clinical trials published earlier this year and the subsequent implementation plan.

He was joined by panellists James Chennells, Head Exploration & Discovery R&D Data Science & Artificial Intelligence at Bayer, Paul Wicks, Independent Consultant at Wicks Digital Health, Miranda Mapleton, Chief Executive Officer at White Swan, and Nina Skorytchenko, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer of Avenna.

James began by sharing his experience of decentralised trials and said, “When running a decentralised arm of a trial, to make life easier for the patient you need a simplified and flexible protocol as the starting point and without that you will definitely fail.” He also spoke about introducing an innovative approach and the need to have sensible precautions, “There is a safety net with only a capped percentage of patients being in the virtual trial so the data from others is still usable if there is a problem.”

Paul then added that while there is new tech innovating clinical trials he emphasised, “The key thing is surfing the edge between patient involvement and technology. Trials are not just about tech but about communicating with the patient, answering the questions, and distilling confidence in your product and ability.”

Miranda then furthered the conversation about the importance of being cautious about tech, “Data is underused. when designing a trial, you need to look at the holistic approach to the patient and also be aware that data does not tell the whole story.”

Nina Skorytchenko brought the conversation back to efficiency, “We’ve been talking about the different elements and design of clinical trials but how about the optimisation and improving the efficiency of clinical trial design and implementation?”

Facilitating collaboration to drive forward the pharmaceutical industry

“Pharma Integrates is the highlight of our event programme and always attracts key players across pharma and healthcare. Delegates and speakers have been keen to connect with peers, discuss how to overcome market challenges and generate new thinking that will, ultimately, lead to improvements in the delivery of healthcare, and patient outcomes,” said Christopher Watt, Executive Director, Life Science Integrates.

“The calibre of speakers this year has been as high as ever, reflecting the value of Pharma Integrates to senior leaders across the healthcare spectrum. In a rapidly changing landscape, there is so much to think about, whether around drug discovery, patient access, policy changes, or clinical trials.” added Samuel Thangiah, Executive Director, Life Science Integrates.

“As a community, we continue to drive progressive change and Life Science Integrates plays an important role in facilitating change and innovation across the sector.”

Thank you to all our sponsors, partners and speakers who have made our event possible, and we look forward to having everybody back next year.