Here, Dr Sheuli Porkess, deputy chief scientific officer, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), outlines how the pharmaceutical industry takes a substance from molecule to medicine and how the process requires persistence.
Medicine
A report last week from the Office of Health Economics (OHE) shows the amazing impact medicines have had on the NHS and more widely. The antipsychotic chlorpromazine, first used in the NHS in 1954, paved the way for deinstitutionalisation and community-based care for people with mental illness. In 1948, there were almost 400,000 cases of measles in England and Wales, and 327 people died. By 2015 the number of cases of measles in England and Wales had fallen below 1,200.