Problems of Developing Drugs

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2015

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Patrick Vallance is something of a rare breed - a game-keeper turned poacher; an academic who has moved over into industry. And not just any industry, but the pharmaceutical industry. At the time, Patrick Vallance was professor of Clinical Pharmacology and head of the Department of Medicine at University College London. A pioneer of research into some of the body’s key regulatory systems, he had also been publicly critical of big Pharma for “funding studies more helpful to marketing than to advancing clinical care”. So what made him go over to "the other side"?

His involvement with the industry was limited until one evening in 2006 when he was asked a question over a dinner, a question that would be pivotal to his life and career.

Today, Patrick is head of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies with annual revenues in excess of £20 billion and nearly a 100,000 employees worldwide. Whilst GSK is no stranger to scandal, since he joined, Patrick has attempted to tackle the culture of secrecy that pervades the industry. He has since reshaped the way GSK carries out its research and has been behind several radical initiatives in global healthcare, to produce a more collaborative approach to tackling major diseases like malaria.

(Photo: Coloured pills)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading from the BBC.
0:03.0	The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use,
0:07.0	go to BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts.
0:11.0	This is Discovery from the BBC. broadcasts. their life scientific. My guest today is something of a rare breed, a gamekeeper turned poacher,
0:26.3	an academic who's moved over into industry and not just any industry but the pharmaceutical
0:31.6	industry. At the time Patrick Valence was professor of clinical
0:35.4	pharmacology and head of the Department of Medicine at University College London, a pioneer
0:40.1	of research into some of the body's key regulatory systems.
0:43.7	He'd also been publicly critical of big farmer for, and I quote, funding studies more helpful
0:49.4	to marketing than to advancing clinical care. By his own admission he didn't know that much about how the industry worked
0:57.0	until one evening in 2006, when he was asked a question over a dinner,
1:02.0	a question that would be pivotal to his life and
1:04.5	career.
1:05.5	Today he's head of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's largest
1:10.2	pharmaceutical companies, with annual revenues in excess of 20 billion
1:13.7	pounds and nearly a hundred thousand employees worldwide.
1:16.5	Since he joined he's reshaped the way G.S.K carries out its research into drug
1:21.9	development and has been behind several
1:24.5	radical initiatives in global health care. Patrick, welcome to a life
1:28.7	scientific. It's a great pleasure to be here. Thank you. So first tell us about that evening that changed your life what happened.
1:36.0	Well I had become involved in G.S. K a couple of years before that I'd been invited
1:40.8	onto their research advisory board and I was having dinner with the then head of
	...

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