The politicians must put global healthcare first - Alan Wise

Our quest for knowledge and breakthrough discoveries in sciences works on a global scale. But the pandemic has meant scientists, like most other sectors, having to adjust to a brave new world. Our universal ecosystem is now one of virtual meetings via a myriad of video platforms.
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Life sciences lab

This was exemplified by the recent JP Morgan Healthcare Conference – an annual deal making San Francisco-based get-together of the more commercial sides of the biotech industry. I attended the virtual event in my role as Chair of Cumulus Oncology, a relatively new Edinburgh-based drug discovery company founded by local science entrepreneur Dr Clare Wareing. I certainly didn’t miss being charged $20 for a cappuccino nor the mass migration of delegates across vast auditoria every 30 minutes to make it to their next meeting, but what was missing was the spontaneity that comes with a live event and chance ‘corridor’ meetings.

It is difficult to quantify this ‘human capital’ component and Cumulus Oncology has operated under these circumstances since it was capitalised last year with investment from St Andrews-based Eos Advisory. Our business model is to identify novel early stage therapeutic assets in Oncology which we deem to have transformational potential, and then to set up companies around these to raise investment to take them into clinical trials and hopefully through to approval once clinical benefit has been demonstrated. This ‘hub-and-spoke’ model is well established in the US with companies such as BridgeBio and Cullinan Oncology raising significant amounts of investment in a relatively short period of time. However, it is a fledgling model in Europe although being positioned in Scotland provides us access to world-leading scientific research at our universities, a scientific talent pool and a thriving network of biotech and contract research organisations.

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We have global ambitions and the move to virtual meeting platforms has enabled us to access novel opportunities across the world without the cost, time and environmental impact associated with international travel. One of our first ‘spin-outs’ is Modulus Oncology – a company set up in partnership with the University of Sheffield which has resulted from a drug discovery project funded largely by the UK’s Wellcome Trust in a novel area of cancer research. We are currently looking to raise investment to take the molecules discovered by the Sheffield team into clinical trials. Exciting times ahead.

During the pandemic, science has been in the global spotlight like never before. I’ve worked in the pharmaceutical sector for 25 years and I’m truly amazed at how quickly the scientific community has developed effective vaccines against this awful disease. In little over one year since the virus was first identified, five vaccines (at time of writing) have proved highly efficacious in relatively large clinical trials – this is an unprecedented scientific breakthrough – not least because all five have been developed using new and innovative technology platforms rather than the more traditional approaches to vaccine discovery. This bodes well for the future of vaccinology. However, the spectre of vaccine nationalism is raising its ugly head and threatening to overshadow the achievements of scientific teams working tirelessly and collaboratively irrespective of geographical boundaries.

Surely the politicians can put their differences aside, dial down the rhetoric and put global healthcare first? If these scientific achievements inspire a new wave of youngsters to study STEM subjects and become future thought leaders in healthcare whilst reducing the levels of scepticism and mistrust of science, then these will be tangible outcomes from a dire global situation. We just need to work out a way of getting our students safely back into normal education as quickly as possible.

Alan Wise, Chairman of Cumulus Oncology and CEO of Modulus Oncology

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