World-first to deliver faster treatments
Posted on 26/10/2010
Asthma treatment
Science Minister, David Willetts, and Health Minister, Lord Howe, have announced that King’s College London will be one of nine universities involved in a world-first initiative to deliver new treatments and medicines to patients faster.
The government’s Therapeutic Capability Clusters programme brings together the life sciences industry, clinicians and academics to work on experimental medicine studies to find new ways to treat or diagnose a range of diseases.
The first two Clusters launched by Mr Willetts and Lord Howe are in inflammatory respiratory disease (such as asthma) and joint inflammatory diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis). These Clusters are the first in the world to be established around specific therapy areas, and King’s College London, as part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre, will be involved in establishing both.
The Capability Clusters will focus on early clinical studies, where industry has a strong interest in working with academia and where both the public (NHS and academic) and private (life sciences industry) sectors will gain by working closely together.
The Clusters aim to ensure that research is translated into treatments for people a lot sooner. The government says this initiative will also help to ensure the UK has the commercial and cultural environment to support strong collaboration and to maintain and grow world-class private sector research and development in the UK.
Professor Tak Lee, Director, MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma at King’s, said: 'I am delighted that we have been selected as one of the Centres of Excellence in the Respiratory Cluster. There is no doubt that the translational research strategy championed by King’s Health Partners, supported by the substantial investment by NIHR in our comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facilities, presented a compelling case. This will be good for our patients and for our institutions as well as for the UK economy through inward investment by industry.'
Professor Andrew Cope, Head, Academic Department of Rheumatology and Lead for the Joint and Related Inflammatory Diseases team at King’s said: 'This initiative will consolidate our working relationship with colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry, providing a more robust network of centres with expertise to deliver pioneering exploratory medicine studies in man. This award of membership to the Therapeutic Capability Cluster in open competition is testimony to the investment that King’s Health Partners has made in Translational Medicine. It is a great achievement for King’s Health Partners, and great news for our patients.'
Separately, David Willetts also announced plans for the Medical Research Council (MRC) to invest £10m in the MRC/Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) Inflammation and Immunology Initiative, in which King’s is a key player, to complement the Therapeutic Capability Clusters programme.
Academic Rheumatology at King’s has also been a beneficiary of this MRC/ABPI initiative. King’s are lead partners in the UK Rheumatoid Arthritis Consortium, which was recently awarded £3.5m to support the project ‘Towards a cure in rheumatoid arthritis’. Research into chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases at King’s will also receive support from the MRC/ABPI initiative.
Dr Alison Campbell OBE, Managing Director at King’s College London Business Ltd, said: 'The Therapeutic Capability Clusters demonstrate a new way for centres of excellence and industry to work together to drive innovation for patient benefit. I have been hugely impressed by the focus on what can be achieved through working together. This has already resulted in some immediate outcomes. That King’s has been included in both Therapeutic Clusters speaks both to our research excellence and to our commitment to open innovation.'
Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, said: 'As Government works to rebalance and grow the UK economy, it is vital that the UK continues to be an attractive environment and the global partner of choice for collaboration in life sciences.
'These Therapeutic Capability Clusters are a world first and I am hugely excited by the potential they and the MRC/ABPI Inflammation and Immunology Initiative offer for UK R&D and our delivery of innovative medicines to patients faster in areas of unmet medical need.'
Notes to editors
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11' and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,000 students (of whom more than 8,600 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 5,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.
King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.
Further information
Emma Reynolds, Press Officer (Health and Society), Public Relations Department
Email: emma.reynolds@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 4334