08/03/2022
Today marks International Women’s Day 2022, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
March 2022 also contains the two year anniversary of the start of many of the first European lockdowns in response to COVID-19. Now that the worst of the pandemic is (hopefully) behind us, International Women’s Day seems a good time to reflect on the extraordinary work done by certain individuals who helped us get back to something resembling normality. Of course, the number of people to whom we owe our thanks is countless. But there are a number of British scientists in leadership positions whose contribution (and the contribution of their team) is particularly notable. We have picked three.
Professor Sharon Peacock
Professor Peacock is a Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge and is known for her work on the use of microbial whole genome sequencing. Having held senior positions at Public Health England since before the pandemic, Peacock was appointed director of the newly formed COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK), which was tasked with collecting, sequencing and analysing coronavirus samples. The large-scale coordinated national sequencing provided by COG-UK was critical for monitoring the progress of the pandemic, including identifying and tracking variants of concern, as well helping with important scientific studies such as vaccine trials.
Dame June Raine
Dame June Raine qualified in medicine at the University of Oxford and undertook postgraduate research leading to an MSc in pharmacology. Raine has worked for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and its predecessor organisations since 1985. Raine has been CEO of the MHRA since 2019 and, in that role, oversaw (and continues to oversee) the regulatory progress of various COVID-19 vaccines. On 2 December 2020, the MHRA became the first medicines regulator in history to approve an mRNA vaccine, granting “emergency authorisation” for the now familiar BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. Careful planning, preparation and collaboration enabled the MHRA, under Raine’s leadership, to grant authorisation so quickly and without comprising safety standards.
Dame Sarah Gilbert
Dame Sarah Gilbert is a Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford. Gilbert specialises in the development of vaccines against influenza and emerging viral pathogens. Gilbert is one of the leaders of the Oxford Vaccine Group who started work on developing a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 on 20 January 2020. By April 2020 the first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had been administered in the UK as part of a trial. Over two billion does of the vaccine have now been released to over 170 countries, with the vaccine being available on a not-for-profit basis throughout the pandemic.
Innovation
Peacock, Raine and Gilbert’s (and their teams’) successes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic are demonstrative of the broader trends of increased innovation in the med-tech fields in recent years. For example, while the COVID-19 pandemic may have accelerated the adoption of technologies such as mRNA vaccines and mass genetic sequencing, these technologies have long been in development and have vast potential beyond COVID-19.
Patent filing statistics can be used a proxy for quantifying innovation levels. In a previous blog, we used patent filing statics to predict future growth of sequencing based on increased patent filing. More generally, while patent filings at the European Patent Office fell slightly overall in 2020, filings in the pharmaceuticals and biotech fields rose by 10.2% and 6.3% respectively – see here. Assuming these trends continue, we can expect exciting future developments in the med-tech space.
At Reddie & Grose, our experienced multidisciplinary Medical Devices and Digital Healthcare team are on hand to advise on the IP challenges of the Medical Technology industry and to provide advice for seeking and securing patent protection.
This article is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.
