Our interim CEO Dr Andrea Taylor presented at the Reuters Pharma conference 2024 - entitled Align Purpose; Unleash Innovation; Unlock Healthcare - in Barcelona last week.
Alongside speakers from Bayer, AstraZeneca, Microsoft and McKinsey, she and Dr Ricardo Sainz-Fuertes, of global pharma company Eisai.co, spoke about the innovative partnerships the world needs to realise the opportunities offered by health data and AI.
The pair work together as part of one such partnership – NEURii – which aims to harness digital and data to tackle dementia. Launched last year, NEURii brings together global pharma (Eisai), philanthropy (Gates Ventures), with research and data (the University of Edinburgh neurology, national health data science organisation Health Data Research UK and medical research charity LifeArc).
Dr Ricardo Sainz-Fuertes said: “Our organisations are working together to remove the barriers for three pathfinder projects launching this year, be they regulatory, financial or data access-orientated, to develop proof- of-concepts for market-ready digital products and services within a year of launch.
“We desperately need new product and regulatory pathways for digital health tools and services, and collaborations like NEURii, which break down previous silos, can establish these new pathways as they go.”
Dr Taylor said: “There are a series of factors in place in the UK at the moment - from translational research expertise; to high quality data sets utilised in a trusted environment with strong governance; AI capabilities, and an entrepreneurial, collaborative mindset – that could help us finally harness the huge potential of digital and data to improve patient outcomes globally.”
