Collaboration Essential Part of Developing and Delivering New Treatments

The Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) today said that charity collaborations with industry are an essential and inevitable aspect of the way medicines and treatments are developed, while emphasising the need for charities to ensure public confidence in what they do by being more open and transparent.

Launching AMRC’s discussion document “An Essential Partnership: Principles and Guidelines for Working with Industry”, which aims to guide charities in building effective collaborations with pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare companies, chief executive Simon Denegri said, “It is an inevitable consequence of the way that new treatments and interventions are developed that we will see a closer collaboration between medical research charities and industry. Such links are increasing and it is important, not only that charities are open and transparent about them with donors and the public, but also that they have policies and procedures which underline their integrity and independence.”

The draft guidelines offer recommendations applicable across a variety of possible situations, covering research, development, intellectual property, partnerships, sponsorship, and policy and campaigning.

These values are particularly important to the public, as revealed in a recent nfpSynergy survey conducted on behalf of Third Sector magazine, which found that the public rated trustworthiness and honesty as the two most important attributes of an ideal charity.

Whilst most charity-industry partnerships are in the area of public information, education and awareness, AMRC believes that in the future both parties will increasingly seek collaborations around research and development. The trend reflects the respective expertise of the pharmaceutical industry in bringing drugs and devices to the market, something that patients clearly want, yet something that many medical research charities are not in a position to achieve on their own- whilst medical research charities can often bring unique knowledge and insight into a disease based on their close and ongoing involvement with patients.

The Government has also put a stronger emphasis on all parts of the research community working together, as shown by the establishment of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration in 2004, and in the recommendations of the Cooksey review in 2006. The charity sector represents a significant and increasing source of research funding. Last year AMRC members spent over Ł700 million on research, representing approximately one third of all public expenditure on medical research in the UK.

The AMRC is launching its guidelines as a discussion document initially and is inviting comments until 1 September 2007. The final version will be published in autumn 2007. Simon Denegri sums up,” We hope that our guidelines will be a useful resource and will enable medical research charities and others to enter into collaborations with clearer expectations and awareness of the issues, and with greater consistency of approach.”

ENDS

Further information:

Mike Conway
Senior Policy Officer
020 7269 8833 (day) 0798 864 0994 (mobile) m.conway@amrc.org.uk 

Simon Denegri
Chief Executive
020 7269 8820 (day) 07793 441 277 (mobile) s.denegri@amrc.org.uk

Background Information

The discussion document “An Essential Partnership: Principles and Guidelines for Working with Industry” is available on AMRC’s website on 14 June 2007, and comments can be sent to Mike Conway, m.conway@amrc.org.uk

The document is being launched at an AMRC Update Event at 4pm on June 14 at the Wellcome Trust in London. Speakers at the event include:
Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive, Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive, MS Society
Dr Richard Tiner, Medical Director, ABPI
Dr Andrew Hughes, Clinical Director, Astra Zeneca

The Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) is a membership organisation of the leading medical and health research charities in the UK. Working with our member charities and partners, we aim to support the sector’s effectiveness and advance medical research by developing best practice, providing information and guidance, improving public dialogue about research and science, and influencing government.

Established in 1987, AMRC has 112 member charities that contribute over Ł700 million annually to research aimed at tackling diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, as well as rarer conditions like cystic fibrosis and motor neurone disease. Over the past five years charities have spent over Ł3.25 billion on research in the UK, contributing significantly to our knowledge and understanding in the life sciences, medicine and health.

www.amrc.org.uk