Exeter academic leads session at conference on affordable medicines

Dr Naomi Hawkins led a session at the recent UK Spine First Annual Conference on Affordable Medicines, exploring with researchers, industry professionals and clinicians about how to ensure access to affordable medicines.

The UK Spine is a national network of research and clinical collaborators focused on developing new medicines to support healthy ageing and includes partnerships between academia, industry and the charitable sectors. The UK Spine Conference was held on 16 and 17 April 2019 at the British Library in London, focusing on the development of affordable medicines. Speakers and attendees were professionals active in knowledge exchange, technology transfer and the pharmaceutical industry as well as researchers and clinicians working and interested in the fields of healthy ageing and affordable medicines. The conference covered issues such as knowledge exchange and open innovation, with a view to enhancing patient access to medicine. Dr Hawkins led a session with Dr Michael Morrison, of the Centre for Health Law and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX) at the University of Oxford, exploring ways to enhance open innovation in drug discovery.