£50 MILLION INVESTMENT TO
CREATE A SCOTTISH TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE RESEARCH COLLABORATION WITH WYETH PHARMACEUTICALS ANNOUNCED
3 April 2006, 11.30am, Meridian Court, Glasgow
The Health Minister today welcomed the announcement of a unique international collaboration with one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies in a deal worth almost £50m to create the world’s first Translational Medicine Research Collaboration in Scotland. The Glasgow announcement coincided with a similar event being held in New York attended by the First Minister and Scottish Enterprise Chief Executive Jack Perry.
The Collaboration will comprise four of Scotland’s leading universities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow), Wyeth Pharmaceutical Co, Scottish Enterprise and NHS Scotland Grampian, Greater Glasgow, Lothian and Tayside, and will provide new impetus for Scotland to lead the world in the development of personalised medicine, bringing new treatments to patients suffering from a range of serious illnesses.
Wyeth, with headquarters in Philadelphia, plans to invest an estimated £33m in the first five years with an option to extend for a further five years. Scottish Enterprise will invest up to £17.5m.
Translational Medicine is a revolutionary new approach to developing new drugs and treatments by focussing research on new tests for the diagnosis and monitoring of human diseases. These tests, called biomarkers, are new proteins or markers that can be measured in blood samples or X-rays of patients. They can then be used to follow the progress and response to the treatment of patients with diseases such as heart attacks, cancer, depression and osteoporosis.
Biomarkers can also help to develop new treatments. The Collaboration will include them in specialised clinical trials in Scotland working with the established network of doctors and researchers who conduct medical research to the highest ethical standards, whilst protecting patient confidentiality. These trials will facilitate the speed in getting new treatments from the laboratory to benefit patients in the clinic, with the potential to enhance patient care and treatments. It will also help adapt prescription drugs to individual needs so that doctors can discover which groups of patients respond best to which medicines, enabling resources to be targeted more effectively, and making sure that the right patients get the right treatments.
The development of this exciting collaboration is a reflection of the world-class reputation for research in medicine and life sciences at the four Scottish Universities. Scotland was also hailed for the close working relationship between the Universities and the NHS in Scotland. Wyeth has an outstanding worldwide reputation in scientific research and is a recognised leader in developing drugs in a number of disease areas including cancer, arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Wyeth is one of the forerunners in the establishment of dedicated Translational Medicine efforts to bridge the gap between basic pre-laboratory drug discovery and drug development in the clinic. The partnership with four of Scotland’s leading universities is expected to yield significant research benefits for patients.
The Collaboration model will consist of a central core Research Laboratory working with ‘Centres of Excellence’ in each of the four University Medical Schools. The Research Laboratory will be based at the University of Dundee, with 50 scientific jobs created in the first instance. The Research Laboratory will be a national resource and will be responsible for promoting innovative and novel scientific developments. It will link seamlessly with clinicians and scientists based in the Centres of Excellence, who will carry out specialised clinical research with the support of patients, many with diseases that contribute to ill-health in Scotland.
The Collaboration also builds upon the development of a new Clinical Research Centre network across the four universities and the NHS in Grampian, Greater Glasgow, Lothian and Tayside. This collaboration will ensure that Scotland consolidates its position as a leading player in the biotechnology and medical research sectors and attracts some of the world’s leading research scientists to work in Scotland.
In particular the Collaboration will bring the following major advantages to Scotland:
· The Collaboration will provide an injection of more than £50m into clinical and biomedical research in Scotland across the four universities and NHS Scotland.
· The Collaboration will support the development of an enviable research platform in clinical drug development.
· The Collaboration will create 50 jobs at the state-of-the-art Laboratory in Dundee in the first instance, rising to as many as 120 over 5 years.
The Minister for Health and Community Care Andy Kerr said: "Translational medicine research is particularly relevant to the NHS, bringing theoretical laboratory based science closer to practical applications of direct benefit to our NHS patients. It is a great example of the public and private sectors working together for mutual benefit. I am delighted that Scotland has been able to develop this pioneering approach."
Frank Walsh, PhD, Executive Vice President, Wyeth Research welcomed the new collaboration saying, “The Translational Medicine Research Collaboration represents a truly novel concept in industry-academic-government partnership, and we are delighted to be the major pharmaceutical partner in this relationship. Translational Medicine is key to the successful development of the next generation of innovative medicines which will truly make a difference for patients the world over”.
Jack Perry, Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise said, “Translational Medicine provides a major opportunity to reduce the bottlenecks in the development of new drug treatments, with significant resultant benefits in economic development and health. Scotland is in a strong position to be a centre for Translational Medicine as a result of its excellence in life sciences, culture of collaboration between the NHS and Universities, and the fantastic support that the Scottish people have demonstrated for medical research. This links with ongoing programmes of investment in its clinical infrastructure and high quality teaching hospitals. This Collaboration will harness the expertise in Scotland and Wyeth and provide the country with significant first mover advantage in a field which is projected to revolutionise the drug industry.”
* Translational medicine is an area of particular strength for the University of Aberdeen because of its many areas of health research excellence which are underpinned by its close relationship and co-existence with NHS Grampian on the Foresterhill site.
Aberdeen is providing the partnership with key expertise in a wide range of areas which include bone disease, medical imaging, breast cancer, neuroscience, mental health, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and women’s health.
Professor Stephen Logan, Senior Vice-Principal at the University of Aberdeen, said: “We have very well established high-quality research in translational medicine at the University of Aberdeen
“Bone research, oncology, medical imaging, renal medicine, women’s health and inflammatory disease are just some of our particular strengths, and these are among our areas of expertise we are sharing with the Scottish Translational Medicine Research Collaboration.
“This is a unique collaboration with the aim of developing therapies for a wide range of major diseases which include cancer, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, respiratory disease and a number of bone diseases including rheumatoid arthritis.”
Professor Neva Haites, Head of the University’s College of Life Sciences and Medicine, added: “This collaborative initiative offers enormous potential for Scotland to contribute in a major way to helping safely introduce new technological developments into Clinical medicine.
“As the University of Aberdeen is at the forefront of such work, we look forward to using our excellent resources in imaging, clinical medicine and scientific research to playing a major role.”
Scottish Enterprise Grampian chief executive Jennifer Craw said: “This is a fantastic development for the life sciences sector in Aberdeen, as well as Scotland as a whole, and will bring significant economic and reputational benefits. It shows the impact which can be achieved through the combined scale of different organisations in different parts of Scotland working together.’’
Some of the University of Aberdeen scientists involved in the collaboration include:
· Mike Greaves, Professor of Haematology and the Head of the School of Medicine, is our scientific lead on the project. His personal area of expertise is in the causes and prevention of thrombosis. Thrombosis is a major factor in heart attacks and most strokes. Through collaboration with colleagues in cardiology, vascular surgery and clinical science improved methods for the identification of subjects at risk for these major causes of disability and death will be explored and it is anticipated that much needed novel antithrombotic treatments will be evaluated.
· David Reid, Professor of Rheumatology,is leading the bone disease research for the collaboration. He is likely to be involved in new techniques pioneered in Aberdeen to detect patients who are in the early stages of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Being able to detect such patients will allow more efficient use of new drugs under development for the diseases. Osteoporosis or brittle bones affects up to 50% of women and 12% of men over the age of 50. More than 2 million people in the UK visit their GP every year for osteoarthritis.
· Dr Alison Murray, Senior Lecturer in Radiology, is leading the brain research for the collaboration. With colleagues in Psychiatry, Medical Physics and Biomedical Sciences the team are likely to be involved in looking at new imaging markers of brain diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.
· Professor Steven Heys, Professor of Cancer Surgery and Consultant Surgeon, is leading a team of specialists in different aspects of cancer. Cancer affects one in three people overall and the team will focus on combining expertise in a variety of fields. They will link skills in imaging, where Aberdeen is leading the way, with lab research to try to understand the mechanisms involved in cancer. The hope is that this will develop new treatments for cancer, as well as the most appropriate treatments for patients.
· Professor Andy Rees, Regius Professor of Medicine is leading the University’s collaboration in inflammatory diseases. Although inflammation is part of the body’s normal response to injury and to its defence against infection, uncontrolled inflammation is a major cause of disease – including heart attacks, chest diseases such as asthma and arthritis and kidney failure. Aberdeen is one of the leading centres for research into inflammatory disease and investigators here will be involved in studies to develop better treatments for asthma and arthritis as part of this initiative.
· Nuala Booth, Professor in Molecular Haemostasis and Thrombosis, is leading the cardiovascular disease research for the collaboration. Her work aims to improve our understanding of what makes thrombi and atherosclerotic plaque stable. This will be investigated in collaboration with clinical colleagues who investigate this problem in patients with heart disease (Dr Graham Hillis), stroke (Dr Mary Joan Macleod), peripheral artery disease (Dr Julie Brittenden and Dr Kevin Cassar). Professor Mike Greaves also collaborates in these projects, investigating the role of platelet activation and platelet-cell interactions.
· Drs Paul Fowler and Siladitya Bhattacharya, Senior Lecturers in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, are expected to collaborate with the University of Edinburgh and the Medical Research Council on a project designed to discover biomarkers for endometriosis. This disease can affect up to 35% of women and is often associated with symptoms such as abdominal pains and infertility. At the moment, diagnosis of this condition is often delayed as the only certain method involves an operation under anaesthetic (a laparoscopy) to visualise the pelvic organs. Finding suitable biomarkers for the disease, thus enabling it to be detected by a simple blood test, will not only speed up diagnosis but also make the process safer for women.