UK Spine Knowledge Exchange and Affordable Medicines Conference (British Library, Euston Road, London 16-17th April)
“UK Spine Knowledge Exchange and Affordable Medicines Conference”
at the British Library on
16th – 17th April 2019

Engaging thought leaders, researchers, clinicians, key opinion leaders, patient groups, funding bodies, knowledge exchange teams, technology transfer offices and industrialisation teams, working, and interested in healthy ageing and affordable medicines. Healthcare is prohibitively expensive. We cannot sustain this model as populations increase and people live longer. How do we revolutionise the pathways for new medicines to make healthcare affordable for our future?

Day 1 (16th April): The Healthy Ageing KE programme:
The ageing population is growing in size and along with it the potential resource burden on our health and social care system. With advancing age there is an increased risk of disease, with co-morbidities and multi-morbidities making treatment and care challenging. Developing therapeutics aimed at the ageing process, diseases associated with ageing and the prevention of disease, is extremely complex, with the additional pressure of tight timeframes for drug discovery because the world’s population is changing too rapidly. The UK Spine KE and associated initiatives are setting out models for open science, open innovation and now open knowledge exchange as a way to navigate this complexity. The vision is to demonstrate that truly open knowledge exchange and collaboration has the potential to lower the barriers of entry to this challenging space, through the creation of a distributed critical mass of expertise and resource focused on co-creating a shared body of knowledge to enable translation of research in to treatment.

The sessions will include:
Session 1: The creation of frictionless knowledge exchange
Session 2: An interactive panel session on achieving frictionless knowledge exchange
Session 3: An interactive panel session ‘Open Science in Drug Discovery and translational projects’
Session 4: Breakout session
Session 5: Intelligent clinical trial design & perspectives on healthy ageing/multi-morbidities
Session 6: Lightening talks and introduction of Proof of Concept call
Session 7: Closing address

The day will finish with an evening meal at the British Library, offering an opportunity to network with all involved.

Day 2 (17th April): The Affordable Medicines Initiative:
Day 2 will provide the foundation for an Affordable Medicines Initiative to examine all aspects of drug discovery. You are invited to contribute to the development of ideas integral to this ambitious collaboration, to learn from existing success stories, scrutinise barriers and develop innovative solutions to lead the world in making medicine affordable for all. Discussion will touch on issues ranging from intellectual property models, health economics, the use of AI and big data, policy and process to develop novel approaches to discovery and development. We will bring together as many interested parties as possible across multiple sectors to help address this challenge.

In this first conversation, we will address a broad spectrum of aspects of medicines discovery leaving aside the issue of healthcare systems themselves. The focus will be on how the we can transform the approach to drug discovery and development to improve its efficiency and efficacy to reduce costs through novel approaches and through learning from other sectors.

Why attend:
We are inviting those interested in engaging with these field to be part of this exciting two day programme. We want to ensure we capture the opportunities and challenges currently faced, engage current and future stakeholders and disseminate what the UKSPINE and related initiatives plan to deliver over the next 12 months. We want to hear from those driving the regulation, innovation and knowledge exchange, those engaged in innovative research, industrial organisations, patient focus groups, charities and clinicians based in these areas.

Logistics:
Tuesday 16th April 09.30 – 17.00, with an evening meal at 18.30
Wednesday 17th April 09.00 – 17.00
British Library, Euston Road, London
Attendance is free, but registration is mandatory, it is possible to register for each day separately.

*About the UK SPINE:
The UK Spine is a national network of research and clinical collaborators focussed on developing new medicines to support healthy ageing and currently includes Oxford, Birmingham, Dundee, the Crick and the Medicines Discovery Catapult, funded by the Research England Connecting Capability Fund. In alignment with the UK Life Sciences Industrial Strategy the UK SPINE will contribute to developing the UK as a global hub for clinical research and medical innovation through efficient and effective partnerships between academia, industry and the charitable sectors.
April marks the completion of our first year of activities, and the first annual conference. The event will be hosted at the British Library on the 16th and 17th April, with the first day focussed on the UKSPINE and Knowledge Exchange for healthy ageing and the second around the Affordable Medicines Initiatives.
Date: 16 April 2019, 9:30
Venue: Venue to be announced
Speaker: Various Speakers
Organising department: Structural Genomics Consortium
Organisers: Natsumi Astley (SGC Oxford (Admin)), Dr Beverley Vaughan (UK SPINE Programme Director)
Organiser contact email address: contact@kespine.org.uk
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/uk-spine-first-annual-conference-tickets-53909220931?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Natsumi Astley