Asher Mullard Research Articles

John-Arne Røttingen.

Over 180 clinical trials of proposed COVID-19 drugs are already recruiting patients, and another 150 are registered to start recruiting patients soon. But many of these trials are small and not designed to identify the best treatment strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic. For Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway John-Arne Røttingen, a more collaborative approach is now needed. And as Chair of the Executive Group and the International Steering Committee of the WHO’s recently launched Solidarity trial, he hopes this mega-trial can provide a blueprint, he told Asher Mullard. Over 180 clinical trials of proposed COVID-19 drugs are already recruiting patients, and another 150 are registered to start recruiting patients soon. But many of these trials are small and not designed to identify the best treatment strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic. For Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway John-Arne Røttingen, a more collaborative approach is now needed. And as Chair of the Executive Group and the International Steering Committee of the WHO’s recently launched Solidarity trial, he hopes this mega-trial can provide a blueprint, he told Asher Mullard.

Zafgen charts unique path to obesity approval

capture. In 2012, the US Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) approved Arena and Eisai’s lorcaserin as well as Vivus’ combination of phentermine and topiramate, the first new obesity drugs to make it to market in years. Yet, sales of these drugs in 2013 were US$25 million and $23 million, respectively. Neither drug was approved in Europe. The difficult-to-tap market is also crowding up. Last December, the FDA approved Novo Nordisk’s liraglutide for obesity. Because the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) inhibitor was initially developed and approved for type 2 diabetes, its obesity approval was backed by a particularly large set of safety data and patient experience. Novo Nordisk is also expecting a decision from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on the obesity indication for liraglutide by the end of 2015. In 2014, the FDA and the EMA both also approved Orexigen Therapeutics’ combination of bupropion and naltrexone. The FDA had rejected the combination in 2011 owing to concerns over its cardiovascular safety profile, but Orexigen and its partner Takeda addressed these with interim data from an ongoing cardiovascular outcomes trial. Asher Mullard Zafgen charts unique path to obesity approval

Keith Blundy.

The non-profit Cancer Research UK (CRUK) funds over £300 million worth of cancer research each year and, with the help of its development and commercialization arm Cancer Research Technology (CRT), has moved more than 30 partnered agents into preclinical and clinical development. Having established a small-molecule track record, CRUK now needs to build up more biologic know-how, says CRT Chief Executive Officer Keith Blundy. To this end, CRUK and AstraZeneca's antibody subsidiary, MedImmune, agreed in September to launch the joint CRUK-MEDI Alliance Laboratory. This fully collaborative and integrated partnership is a first of its kind, Blundy tells Asher Mullard.

David Haslam

The new Chairman of NICE discusses value-based pricing, cost–benefit appraisals of drugs for rare diseases and the organization's expanded remit. When the UK's National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) was launched on April Fools' Day in 1999, some of its architects had doubts it would survive. Fourteen years on NICE is going strong, providing treatment guidance and drug cost–benefit analyses. Because many markets use UK drug pricing as a reference point, NICE's decisions also have a footprint far beyond the country. Now, the rebranded National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has its first new Chairman. David Haslam, a family doctor who was previously President of the British Medical Association and President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, took up oversight of the organization in April. He told Asher Mullard about his aims for NICE and the challenges of its new remit.

Straight talk with...Phil Willis

Late last year, Phil Willis stepped into the role of chairman of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) in the UK. He spoke with Asher Mullard about his plans to drive the medical research sector forward through tough economic times. When Phil Willis, a former school headmaster turned politician, landed a seat on the UK government's Science and Technology Committee in 2005, he found a way to make his mark as a nonscientist by obsessively asking for evidence from researchers. Now in the House of Lords, he continues to advise the government on biomedicine, among other topics. Willis recently found a new cause to champion as well, the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC). The AMRC represents 124 UK nonprofits that collectively spend £1 billion ($1.6 billion) a year on biomedical research, around one third of the total amount of money put toward health research in the country. As Willis stepped into his role as chairman of the association in November, he spoke with Asher Mullard about his plans to drive the sector forward through tough economic times.

Straight talk with...Ellen 't Hoen

In July, the global health financing mechanism UNITAID established an intellectual property-sharing scheme focused on scaling up access to new and lower-priced antiretroviral drugs in the developing world. The initiative-called the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP)-aims to streamline licensing processes, drive the combination of multiple HIV medicines into one pill and foster the development of drug formulations for children. In September, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) became the first contributor to the venture, licensing a suite of patents related to protease inhibitors that are used to treat HIV. The task of bringing drug firms and other key stakeholders into the fold now falls on Ellen 't Hoen, a lawyer who became MPP's executive director last month after previously heading up Médecins Sans Frontières' Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. Asher Mullard spoke to Hoen about the challenges of encouraging companies to share their intellectual property in a normally guarded sector.

Straight talk with ... Peter Piot

Peter Piot, formerly executive director of UNAIDS, will become director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine next month. Speaking with Asher Mullard, he discusses the changing nature of global health research. Peter Piot was a freshly minted doctor, still working toward his PhD in microbiology, when he co-discovered Ebola virus. The experience launched him on a successful career in global health, including a 12-year stint as Executive Director of UNAIDS until 2008. More recently, he was appointed director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where he is due to start next month. Speaking with Asher Mullard, he discusses the world's failed pledge to deliver universal access to AIDS treatments by 2010, the advances that have nevertheless been made and the changing paradigm of AIDS programs.

Straight talk with...Aline Plançon

Counterfeiting medicine has become such a sophisticated crime that it has attracted the attention of the world's largest police organization, Interpol. In November, these top cops wrapped up an operation in South East Asia, in which they helped seize around 20 million counterfeit drugs and arrested more than 30 people. To further stem the tide of phoney, dangerous, unregistered and illegal medical products, Interpol has placed French police officer Aline Plançon at the helm of its dedicated Medical Products Counterfeiting and Pharmaceutical Crime (MPCPC) unit, which was created in January. Working closely with the World Health Organization's (WHO's) International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT)-a four-year-old inter-agency partnership developing global, collaborative anticounterfeiting solutions-Plançon is tasked with supporting and coordinating enforcement activities around the world. Asher Mullard spoke with Plançon about her role in combating a deadly international scourge.

Microbiology: Tinker, bacteria, eukaryote, spy

Bacteria and their hosts may reside in different kingdoms, but that doesn't stop them from intercepting each other's communications. Asher Mullard reports.

Microbiology: The inside story

The human body teems with microbes. In this, the first of two features, Asher Mullard looks at the global efforts to catalogue this vast 'microbiome'. In the second, Apoorva Mandavilli meets the surgeons who have a rare opportunity to watch an ecosystem being established as they transplant guts from one person to another.

Microbiology: Straight from the gut

The human body teems with microbes. In the first of two features , Asher Mullard looks at the global efforts to catalogue this vast 'microbiome'. In this, the second, Apoorva Mandavilli meets the surgeons who have a rare opportunity to watch an ecosystem being established as they transplant guts from one person to another.