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Pharmacologists at the University of Liverpool’s Department of molecular and clinical pharmacology have been awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize in recognition of their work to improve the safety and effectiveness of medicines.
The prizes are awarded by the Royal Anniversary Trust and presented every two years to reward innovative work of outstanding quality within the higher and further education sector.
Twenty-one UK universities and colleges of further education have been awarded with a prize this year, which is the twelfth biennial round of the scheme.
The clinical pharmacology department in Liverpool is one of the oldest and largest in the UK, and is well known for its work in designing and creating novel drugs, running clinical trials on new drugs, and improving the use of existing drugs.
It also works to understand, predict and tackle adverse drug reactions, and it has developed tools that are used globally by physicians to avoid adverse drug reactions in susceptible patients delivering huge impact in the care of millions of patients.
Courtesy of David MacEwan
Work in the department of pharmacology at the University of Liverpool encompasses a wide range of molecular and clinical research endeavours, investigating drug efficacy and toxicities when tackling most major disease areas; and investigating therapeutics to treat tropical and third world diseases
David MacEwan, head of the department said: “Through our bench to bedside approach, we continuously strive to ensure our work improves the development of medicines, for the benefit of society.
“It is a great honour to be awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, which recognises the excellent work carried out by our staff.”
London’s Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) has also been recognised with a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its role in pioneering the transition from one-size-fits-all chemotherapy to targeted drug treatment.
Since 2005, the ICR has discovered 20 new targeted cancer drugs and taken 9 into clinical trials.
Abiraterone, the innovative drug for advanced prostate cancer, discovered at the ICR, was approved for use on the NHS in 2012 and has extended the lives of hundreds of thousands of men around the world.
