Genome BC Signals Fall 2014

Page 1

SIGNALS

NO.48

Genome BC News  |  Fall 2014

Contents Feature Story  |  Message from the President & CEO  |  Profile  |  Partners In Action |  News & Announcements

THE DRUGS DON’T WORK... NOW WHAT? “The cupboard is bare,” said Dame Sally Davies, a memorable and stark comment about the lack of new antibiotics in the development pipeline – made at the 5th Annual Don Rix Distinguished Keynote Lecture held on October 7th in Vancouver. Dame Sally is seriously concerned that we are facing a time of severe unmet medical needs, across developing and Western nations. The path for antibiotics – from discovery to commercialization “may well need to be re-ploughed.”

Dame Sally is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England and Chief Medical Advisor to the UK government. She is the first woman to hold the position of CMO in 155 years. Named as Britain’s 6th most powerful woman by the BBC, Dame Sally is the government’s principal medical adviser and guides government decisions on diverse subjects such as superbugs, drug trials, obesity, addiction and mental health. During her talk, Dame Sally addressed several public health issues, focusing most notably on the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to currently available antibiotics. Globally, there are ways to preserve our remaining antibiotics and she illustrated how genomics can be used in the development of new antibiotics. This type of ongoing research can be seen locally at the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), which you can read more about in our Partnerships in Action section.

...we have seen no new classes of antibiotics approved since 1987.

Dame Sally Davies

www.genomebc.ca


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