From molecule to medicine - a view from the ABPI

In light of a report on the 10 most important medicines over the life of the UK's National Health Service (NHS), the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's (ABPI) deputy chief scientific officer, Sheuli Porkess, outlines how pharma's process of taking a substance from molecule to medicine requires persistence.

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 deinstitutionalization 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.

These medicines, and others, had a variety of benefits including better clinical outcomes, saving lives, improving quality of life, greater health service efficiency and wider societal impacts. But making medicines is a complicated and costly business. It costs billions of pounds and can take decades. Successes can change the world; failures are an inevitable part of the discovery and development process. But when medicines get through the development process, they can clearly change millions of lives.