Leading independent consultancy Oxford PharmaGenesis is pioneering the innovative discipline of HealthScience. For the first time, this integrates the clinical and scientific dimensions of healthcare with the economic, social, behavioural and political perspectives that determine the value of new medicines and health interventions.
There is a clear need for a new, formal, integrated approach that truly engages physicians, patients and policy-makers, helping them to reach what can be life and death choices about what to fund and what not to fund. “The world already spends over a trillion dollars annually on medicines and surgical interventions, and new advances are being made all the time,” said Dr Chris Winchester, Managing Director of Oxford PharmaGenesis. “But we can’t afford them all, so which ones should we choose? It is no longer enough to show that a new treatment is effective and safe. It must now also be cost-effective, and it must meet the expectations of patients and society.”
The company has been successfully employing the discipline of HealthScience in a number of therapy areas in the past year, including stroke, heart failure and schizophrenia (see http://www.oxfordhealthpolicyforum.org). These Oxford PharmaGenesis initiatives involve top doctors, scientists, patients and policy-makers from around the world, and have attracted glowing endorsements from renowned medical bodies.
Oxford PharmaGenesis is an independent consultancy with nearly 20 years of experience in medical communications, and has over 120 dedicated scientific and clinical experts working in offices in Oxford, London, Basel and Philadelphia. “Our ideal is for HealthScience to be accepted as the standard approach to demonstrating the value of new therapies,” said Dr Richard White, Commercial Director. “We have a powerful concept here. I would be delighted to see HealthScience departments being created in industry, and eventually in academia. We are seeing a revolution in healthcare, and it is exciting to be leading this initiative from Oxford, at the heart of British science and medicine.”
To mark the global launch of HealthScience, Oxford PharmaGenesis has developed new branding to reflect and communicate this new integrated approach – see www.pharmagenesis.com for further information.
Dr Richard White
Commercial Director, Oxford PharmaGenesis Ltd
Tel. +44 1865 390 144 (switchboard)
