R&D

Putting patients first: how ��ֳ� ensure that innovation in science meets real needs

Chiara Vona — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 11:06:14 +0000

Putting patients first: how ��ֳ� ensure that innovation in science meets real needs

Scott Fleming, Global Communications & Company Reputation

Chiara Vona Wed 14/12/2022 - 12:06

‘Innovation’ is a word we hear a lot in the pharmaceutical industry – be that innovative modes of action, innovative clinical development strategies or innovative digital solutions.

At ��ֳ�, we believe that innovation should always be linked to a patient insight. That can be an insight revealed through a greater understanding of disease biology, or it can be an insight captured through market research or translating their experiences, perspectives, and views into our clinical study design. That’s why we’ve developed and implemented a new framework centred around our most important stakeholder – the patient. This new robust end-to-end framework is designed to ensure that patients and key stakeholders provide direct insight and input as early as possible into the overall strategy behind research and development programs, as well as the entire drug lifecycle. We believe this patient insight approach plays a vital role in achieving success for communities across the world, as we know true innovation is about designing solutions with patients, rather than simply designing medicines for them.

Traditionally, patients were viewed by pharmaceutical companies as simply consumers, but over the past decade, patients have been increasingly active and empowered when it comes to decisions concerning their health. Nowadays, they are considered true partners working towards a collective goal. Our framework takes into consideration this progression of the patient role, embracing the notion of patient centricity, which places importance on patients as ‘co-creators’ in the R&D process. Patient engagement is no longer simply about validating assumptions or having patients participate in research; instead, it has become far more valuable to co-create solutions that tackle the diverse challenges that matter most to them as individuals and their caregivers.

When it comes to R&D, it’s critical to embed the ‘patient’ early. By ensuring their needs are understood and embedded during the initial stages, research and development programs can be grounded in real-world insight, helping to inform more impactful decisions as the R&D journey continues. At ��ֳ�, we work to obtain a holistic and 360-degree data-enabled view of the patient, working in tandem to answer critical questions along the lifecycle of drug development. It provides an opportunity for patients to offer insights into unmet areas of need, on outcomes that matter most to them and potential areas of concern regarding study designs.

As an example, ��ֳ� recently constructed the formulation, refinement and first evaluations of a new evidence-based approach to measure fatigue in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), called FATIGUE- PRO (Patient Reported Outcomes) – developed in collaboration with patients who described their personal experience of living with the condition. These patients raised concerns that many instruments currently used to measure fatigue come with limitations, such as not addressing the breadth of fatigue they experience. The research team collected qualitative data throughout the process, and were able to refine the parameters, including physical fatigue, cognitive fatigue, and susceptibility to fatigue, based on patient insight. The result was a new PRO instrument to measure fatigue that addresses the conceptional limitations of current tools, and that will have a significant impact on the lives of SLE patients.

Listening and learning from patients at the earliest stages of research supports a deeper appreciation of patients’ reality and unmet needs. That’s what drives each and every one of us at ��ֳ�, though we’re all unique and all bring unique qualities to the work we do. That’s probably why we each have a unique take on what innovation means.

Find out more on why, at ��ֳ�, we’re driven to develop innovative solutions for patients here.

innovation

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Using our innovative antibody know-how to enhance the power of nature

eCMSadmin — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Using our innovative antibody know-how to enhance the power of nature

David Humphreys, Discovery Science

eCMSadmin Mon 13/09/2021 - 02:00

Together with researchers at the University of Southampton, ��ֳ� used its antibody expertise and innovative protein engineering to harness part of the human immune system known as the complement cascade to enhance the natural ability of therapeutic antibodies to attack blood cancer cells.

Recently published in Communications Biology (part of the Nature portfolio) the new technology builds on previous research from ��ֳ� and harnesses a natural feature found at the end of Immunoglobulin M (IgM), an antibody with naturally high levels of complement activation, called a ‘tailpiece’. The tailpiece critically contributes to the formation of IgM hexamers. Antibody hexamerisation is a critical feature for activation of the complement system to attack cancer cells. By making a subtle modification to the tailpiece it enabled the Immunoglobulin G (IgG) - which is preferred for the treatment of human diseases - to retain its desirable properties but also take on the hexameric properties of IgM when bound to the target cell. This approach combines the best features of both antibody types into a single molecule and may open the way for a potential new class of treatments.

The new method was shown to be effective in several different antibodies. This makes it potentially attractive as a ‘plug-and-play’ modification tool to improve the performance of existing antibodies or create ‘bio-betters’ from existing therapeutics. To read more, the full (open access) paper can be accessed here.

The research was the product of a UKRI government-��ֳ� co-funded PhD studentship collaboration (BBSRC grant BB/N5039927/1) between blood cancer experts at the University of Southampton and antibody engineering experts at ��ֳ�.

innovation

R&D R&D University of Southampton Antibody hexamerisation

823 Likes

The pursuit of continuous innovation

eCMSadmin — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The pursuit of continuous innovation

Dhaval Patel, Patient Value Early Solutions

eCMSadmin Wed 08/09/2021 - 02:00

From unlocking the secrets of chemicals, cultivating the promises of pharmaceuticals and expanding into biologics, peptides and gene therapy, our researchers at ��ֳ� are on a mission to continuously innovate. To do that, we are harnessing today’s new frontiers in science and technology and strengthening our capabilities to discover and develop new medicines. So, it should come as no surprise that we are utilising some unique disruptive technology to help strengthen our gene therapy activities.

We recently signed an agreement with CEVEC Pharmaceuticals to evaluate and gain access to their ELEVECTA® technology. ELEVECTA® technology may enable ��ֳ� to develop a scalable, robust and efficient manufacturing of gene therapy vectors. Up until now, manufacturing of adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs) has been an expensive and challenging process usually requiring multiple batches of transient transfection of cells lines and large quantities of cGMP-quality plasmids. The CEVEC technology overcomes these limitations based on producer cell-lines which have all the necessary elements for AAV production integrated in one cell. This enables superior, efficient, high-performance, industry scale AAV production from one cell line with consistent quality.

At ��ֳ� we have world class discovery, research, development and manufacturing facilities and to maintain this position we will continuously monitor new and disruptive technologies in the pursuit of innovation.

You can read more about our R&D global footprint and explore the gene therapy opportunities at ��ֳ� by visiting our recruitment page here.

innovation

R&D R&D Gene Therapy ELEVECTA CEVEC AAV

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Clinical Trial Day: Honoring our Clinical Researchers

eCMSadmin — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:00:00 +0000

Clinical Trial Day: Honoring our Clinical Researchers

Becky Malone, Patient Value Development Solutions

eCMSadmin Thu 20/05/2021 - 11:00

At ��ֳ�, we are committed to discovering and providing innovative solutions that address significant unmet needs for people with severe chronic diseases. Because the diseases we tackle are serious, and every patient has a unique journey, our goal is to enable them to live their best life, whatever that is for them. Our people are at the heart of that goal, with their diverse strengths and talent they enable us to fulfill our ambitious goals by driving innovation and providing differentiated solutions.

International Clinical Trials Day began in 2005 to commemorate the day James Lind started the first clinical trial on May 20, 1747. This year, on May 20, 2021, we will celebrate and raise awareness by honoring some of our clinical research professionals across the globe and the work they do to improve patient care. Read below to learn more!

Standardization is an integral element to automating the clinical trial design and study build process. Organizations such as ��ֳ� are looking to leverage technology solutions to effectively define, manage and integrate the metadata processes. But what are the driving factors, challenges and important considerations for those looking to modernize their approach to clinical trial design and study builds? Stayce Murray, Head of IT Digital Clinical Development, partnered with Formedix to explore these considerations and discuss the role of metadata standardization in an end-to-end clinical study environment. View the full session here.

��ֳ� was one of the member companies instrumental in advancing this industry-leading TransCelerate initiative, established to maximize the value of clinical data collected in the control arms of clinical trials by enabling the responsible sharing of patient-level data from completed studies while safeguarding patient privacy. Read more in the Pulse On Progress (pg. 9) from TransCelerate where a vision to increase potential value in a post COVID-19 world is described.

Innovation is a driver in the acceleration and impact of our research and development. For patients that includes advancing adaptations in decentralized clinical trials (DCT) and ��ֳ� was recently highlighted in the Clinical Leader online magazine for use of DCT studies during the pandemic. Tero Laulajainen, Head of GCSO, was interviewed on how our digital transformation helped to manage the impact of the pandemic on clinical trials. Advancing the use of decentralized trials allowed us to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on our clinical studies allowing a more patient centric experience. In addition, he joined peers at Janssen, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, PPD and Medable to discuss best practices, techniques for using technology to improve patient centricity, and ways to implement remote Electronic Clinical Outcome Assessment (eCOA) and DCTs in a non-disjointed way. View the entire session here.

The pandemic continues to have a profound impact on people around the world, putting pressure on our health systems and disrupting all our daily lives. But it has also showcased human ingenuity, and the significance of R&D in overcoming societal threats and the importance of looking beyond just tomorrow as it pertains to developing solutions for patients. Imagine a future where a patient or physician can find, learn about and participate in clinical research similar to the way we interact with our own financial services companies – through apps and sophisticated yet simple technology solutions. Enter digital transformation and blockchain solutions! Alongside industry peers such as GSK, Novartis, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Disa Lee Choun, Head of GCSO Innovation, moderated this exciting forum on “Creating a More Seamless Front-End and Back-End to Future-Proof and Advance Digital Transformation in Pharma”. View the full session here.

We continue to collaborate with innovative external partners. We have joined with Stanford Medicine for rapid exploration of clinical datasets to identify defined patient phenotypes and clusters. Stanford, with its unique access to scientific and medical excellence alongside significant patient data, will considerably expand our range of available approaches to better understand patients.

To enable rapid investigation of new patient populations where our solutions could impact, we have worked with Quantum Black. Together the ��ֳ� and Quantum Black team have brought together diverse datasets and used advanced analytics to enable prioritization of potential new opportunities for our pipeline programs.

These are just a few examples of how ��ֳ� and our researchers are working to ensure we remain at the forefront of a rapidly changing external environment. Thank you to all our clinical research colleagues for the leadership, resilience, and passion you bring each and every day to create value for people living with severe disease.

Check out ‘Our Science’ page to learn more and follow our continued external partnering and collaboration on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook!

innovation

Clinical Trials Day R&D Our Science Digital Transformation

Comment:

Posted by Sumantoke Bagchi, 27 May 2021

Thanks for enriching us with the info

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R&D

Putting patients first: how ��ֳ� ensure that innovation in science meets real needs

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Using our innovative antibody know-how to enhance the power of nature

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The pursuit of continuous innovation

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Clinical Trial Day: Honoring our Clinical Researchers

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R&D

Putting patients first: how ������ֳ� ensure that innovation in science meets real needs

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Using our innovative antibody know-how to enhance the power of nature

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The pursuit of continuous innovation

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Clinical Trial Day: Honoring our Clinical Researchers

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Putting patients first: how ��ֳ� ensure that innovation in science meets real needs