Date:
Location:
The
Abchurch Offices; Attended by:
A selection of Abchurch’s Life Sciences clients, key journalists, influencers, investors and analysts in the sector
The Event:
With the
Life Sciences sector buzzing with activity and the Abchurch team continuously
growing, we enthusiastically flung open our doors for the second annual Life
Science themed party. It presented an opportunity to bring the industry sector
professionals together to mix, mingle and network with like-minded individuals.
With
kick-off at 6pm, guests were greeted by the Abchurch team with a glass of sparkling
(alcoholic or otherwise!) by a waiter donning Abchurch-branded purple scrubs.
Guests migrated into the amazing open office space where the entertainment
commenced. Once all had arrived and enjoyed an initial tipple, and a catch-up
with the life science fraternity, attention moved to our two guest speakers.
First on
the agenda was Dr Gabrielle Silver; Global Head of Strategic Marketing,
Neurology/ General Medicine at GE Healthcare. She gave a very insightful
overview of the global burden of neurodegenerative diseases. Specifically, Gaby
noted current attitudes towards dementia – which she believes are often driven
by fear, especially with patients – as there is currently no known treatment. Fear
and denial lead to poor knowledge levels, and specifically that late diagnosis
of disease is, at this time, too late to prevent damage and progression. As such, Gaby
concluded her talk by looking to the technology horizon, and highlighted the essential
requirement for better diagnostics that can pick up the signs of disease as
early as possible. Indeed, diagnostics of the future will detect patients
vulnerable to dementia before symptoms have even been seen. Such diagnostics
will give patients the greatest chance of protection, either through a change
in life-style or the new therapeutics coming to fruition. Indeed, Gaby noted that the next 6-12 months
will be very exciting as results from several Phase III studies on drugs for
Alzheimer’s will be published – the first drugs to treat the disease, rather
than the symptoms. 
Second to
take to the mic was John Hodgson; Managing Editor of ScripIntelligence. John posed
the question: “What lessons could Life Sciences learn from Facebook?”
Regardless of Facebook’s valuation at IPO, and lacklustre performance in the
aftermarket, John’s point was that there is clearly immense value held in data
on people – so what would be the value of patient data and medical records?
He
described the current status quo
where medical records are held as highly confidential, and only very few
physicians may gain access to them. In the Facebook model, it is the owner of
the profile that can divulge as much, or as little, as they choose about
themselves, to post on the social media site. In healthcare however, patients
do not have access to their own data, and are therefore not empowered to
disseminate it as they see fit.
What is
required, according to John, is a major change in mindset – not easy, he
hastened to add. However, if patients owned their medical records, they could
choose to make it available for anyone to use, to specific groups only, or
completely secret; whatever works for them. But, like Facebook, you can be sure
that significant volumes of data would move into the public domain. John noted
that the value of this data is impossible to calculate, but it wouldn’t be used
to steer advertising campaigns, but drive the development of the multi-billion
dollar drug industry.
Throughout
this exclusive evening, the guest’s taste buds were tickled by a selection of,
what I would class as, Michelin star quality canapés. For the main course we
were treated to seared chilli beef and nasu dengaku served in kidney dishes;
duck, watermelon & cashew salad, tiger prawns with mango in a rice paper
roll arranged around forceps, salmon tartar (my personal favourite) served
around syringes, and betal leaf with pomelo & pomegranate for the veggies,
scattered amongst Abchurch purple stethoscopes. Then, if this wasn’t enough to
satisfy cravings or fill the stomach void, we had an equally impressive spread
of delicious deserts. Keeping of course to the Life Science theme, the
chocolate mousse with roasted hazelnuts and lychee jelly with mango DNA-style pearls
served in petri dishes. To which I must add, the lychee jelly did look
uncannily like an agar gel harbouring bacteria…but this realistic
interpretation still failed to put me off eating more than my fair share! More
mingling and medical deserts of a strawberry & coconut ‘syrup’ served on
silver ‘dosing’ spoons, white chocolate ‘tablets’, and vanilla & strawberry
‘dentures’ scattered amongst dental tools, and the party started to draw to a
close. 
Once again
Abchurch’s organisational and hosting skills could not be faulted. The evening
was a sterling success; with guests remaining extremely animated as they
discussed the ins, outs and issues of the sector. Thank you to all who attended
and contributed to the event and hopefully see you for the same again next
year!
HarrietFollow us on Twitter @AbchurchComms
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