By Greig Rooney

Copyright scotsman

Working in life sciences, every day begins with one question: how will today’s work change a patient’s life tomorrow? This focus grew out of my own experience of contracting malaria as a child in rural Yemen and is underpinned by my work with the Scottish Patient Awareness Council (SPAC) which seeks to empower the ultimate end user of life sciences innovations. Patient stories remind us that transparency, predictability and empathy matter just as much as the efficacy, quality and safety of a vaccine or treatment. This is in direct contrast to the tropes peddled about so-called ‘Big Pharma’. Companies driving to improve the health of patients are cast as profit-driven monoliths, but the reality is far more nuanced. Life sciences companies, including in Scotland, shoulder enormous financial risk, invest billions in R&D and navigate complex regulatory pathways to bring life-saving medicines to market. Across Scotland, life sciences organisations uphold rigorous health, safety, quality and compliance standards and provide training that equips teams to deliver high quality products every time. For example, vaccines that reach national immunisation programmes stand on decades of discovery, rigorous trials and exhaustive safety reviews. They have, in partnership with local health services, eradicated harmful diseases from many countries around the world. Instead of demonising an entire sector, we should applaud its role in turning scientific breakthroughs into safe treatments that save lives. Scotland’s life sciences cluster offers a powerful springboard to deliver the life-changing and life-saving treatments that the global population needs to live longer and healthier lives. This is a massive economic opportunity for Scotland and indeed the wider UK. It could provide even more high paid jobs and generate bigger tax receipts for funding public services. However, it is the testimonials of patients that affirm that every safety benchmark we exceed and every audit we pass translates into real, tangible, life improvements. Putting patients at the heart of everything is not a sales slogan but the compass guiding the members of SPAC and, I hope, every other organisation committed to advancing health innovation. It challenges all of us to measure success not by profit but by the lives protected and improved. SPAC is led by industry and has been strongly supported by Scottish Enterprise. It brings together the triple helix of private, public and academic sectors to foster collaboration, drive innovation and share best practice. Founded last year, SPAC has grown organically to include almost 100 representatives from these three sectors and experience that spans across pharmaceuticals, life sciences, medtech, healthcare and more. It’s uniquely placed to bring different perspectives together to discuss and collaborate. We are bringing people together but crucially we are taking action, as no one benefits from another ‘talking shop’. Together we have inspired patient-focused conversations, helping to bring our work to life and show the direct effect of the work of and to our teams. Importantly, it has provided learning opportunities through shared challenges. There are common difficulties in promoting patient centricity and the problem solving and support for members has been hugely positive. SPAC has also enabled us to develop educational materials and social media content focusing on the patient. All of these demonstrate the possibilities from collaboration, all driven by the same purpose to put patients at the heart of everything, and with this our industry in Scotland can only prosper. Greig Rooney is Chair of the Scottish Patient Awareness Council