left-right: John Harris, CEO of OBN; Rab Prinjha, GSK Medicines Research Centre; Chas Bountra, Director Structural Genomics Consortium Oxford; Paul Durrands, Oxford AHSN; Wen Hwa Lee, SGC Oxford
Pioneering work in the field of drug discovery earned the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) the 2016 Oxford Academic Health Science Network (Oxford AHSN) collaboration award.
Prof Chas Bountra, Director of SGC Oxford, received the prize at the OBN Awards dinner in Oxford Town Hall this evening (Thursday 6 October). Prof Bountra was joined by Dr Wen Hwa Lee, Director Disease Foundations Network, Strategic Alliances SGC, and Dr Rab Prinjha from the GSK Medicines Research Centre, representing one of the SGC’s many pharma partners.
Prof Bountra said: “The SGC in Oxford is working with pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, patient organisations, clinicians and academic researchers to identify new therapeutic targets. We have assembled this extensive network of expertise to generate high quality, freely available, novel reagents to accelerate drug discovery for patients. We are honoured that the Oxford AHSN recognises these efforts and are delighted to receive such a prestigious award.”
The award recognises innovative partnerships between universities, industry and the NHS which will ultimately benefit patients. It was presented by Dr Paul Durrands, Chief Operating Officer of the Oxford AHSN.
He said: “This was undoubtedly the strongest shortlist we have had in the three years we’ve been running this award. There is some great work going on in our region with real potential to make a difference to patients locally, nationally and internationally. The SGC is a worthy winner. They are a highly innovative and enormous web of expertise which is accelerating science and catalysing the creation of new biotechs and jobs.”
The SGC, which has a base at the Old Road Campus, University of Oxford, was the unanimous winner chosen by an independent judging panel. The judges comments included:
- ‘very exciting and potentially ground-breaking’
- ‘embedded and engaged with industry’
- ‘significant scope and scale’
- ‘could make a significant difference’
The shortlist also included:
- Abbott Point of Care with the University of Oxford and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust – projects include diagnostic testing in acute and community settings.
- McLaren Applied Technologies with the University of Oxford – improving efficiency of patient care and optimising the treatment journey for serious conditions.
Previous winners of the Oxford AHSN Best Public-Private Collaboration Award were:
- 2015 – Isansys, remote patient monitoring technology
- 2014 – Cranfield University/Bedford Hospital, bone density diagnostics
The prize was presented at the 2016 OBN Awards.
The judging panel comprised:
- Chair: Dr Nick Edwards, Chair of MedInnovate and Oxford Academic Health Science Network Wealth Creation Oversight Group Chair
- Chris Goard, Non-Executive Director, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; former Group Marketing Director of Taylor Nelson Sofres plc
- Charles Swingland, co-founder of Circassia; Deputy Chairman and General Counsel, Drayson Technologies Ltd
- Nigel Tipple, Chief Executive, Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership