Why we won’t be funding open access publishing any more - Cancer Research UK - Cancer News The open access movement was bold and promising, but ultimately disappointing. Now is the time to stop and call for a new way to make publishing work…

Will be interesting to see whether other major scientific research organisations follow the lead of @cancerresearchuk.org

news.cancerresearchuk.org/2026/04/01/w...

Consultant | Life Sciences and Healthcare | Strategic Communications in United Kingdom, England, London We are looking for an enthusiastic self-starter who wants to join a market leading team that provides strategic communications to innovative...

We are looking for a consultant to join our strategic communications life sciences and healthcare team.

If you are interested in helping us advise some of the leading companies in the sector, please apply.

fticonsult.referrals.selectminds.com/fticareers/j...

Marginal gains!

On graduate and intern recruitment We have just completed the recruitment cycle for the graduates that will be joining us in September and the interns that will join for two months in July. We had a record number of applicants for our ...

I've collated what I have learned fromour intern and graduate recruitment this year.

There are a lot of good candidates out there, I hope companies keep roles open for them.

Decades of medical insight unlocked as UK Biobank gets GP records A legal breakthrough allows years of health information from half a million Britons to be studied, offering unprecedented data on disease and ageing

I am proud to have signed up to @ukbiobank.bsky.social and am delighted to see that FINALLY they are getting access to the data from GPs. Ridiculous that this has been stifled by bureaucracy for twenty years. www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...

Pharma CEOs should demand Prasad’s departure It is past time for life sciences industry leaders to publicly demand Vinay Prasad’s firing.If FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is unwilling to part wi...

Strong editorial from @steveusdin.bsky.social in @biocentury.bsky.social calling for the CEOs of pharma companies to demand Vinay Prasad be fired.

Given that pharma and biotech leaders actively backed Trump, knowing his policies, I doubt any of them will.

www.biocentury.com/article/658404

The moral panic about GLP-1 rebound Scientists and journalists are piling on the misery about the weight regain after medication

This commentary by @natashaloder.bsky.social on the media coverage of the BMJ article on weight gain after patients stop using GLP-1s is a must read for those who communicate scientific information.

I think the sports bit stays with Warners as a new company. I'm sure they'll find a way of charging even more for DiscoveryPlus

It was an easy choice to make.

"No Pasarán"

A fantastic initiative.

During the last election, I think the industry spent so much time distracted by the IRA and its potential impact on drug pricing that it missed the threats to the FDA and to scientific research and the potential imposition of tarrifs.

This is not good for the sector or for the health of patients.

While the issue in the UK is, yet another, government that really does not understand the connection between investment and uptake of medicines, I feel the issue in the US may be self-inflicted.

In ‘biotech winter,’ Boston startups, jobs, and science are being swept away - The Boston Globe Local companies have shut down or scaled back in the industry’s decline, threatening scientific progress on cancer, autoimmune disorders, and other diseases.

Over the last week there has been a lot written about the challenges faced by the life sciences sector in the UK. It appears there is a wider malaise as the @bostonglobe.com reports there are challenges in Boston too.

This is not good at all.

If the UK government really wants to support the life sciences it needs to encourage investment here, not discourage it.

There have been at least seven government strategies for life sciences this century, it is time a government actually put one into action.

Why is AI struggling to discover new drugs? A generation of start-ups have failed to live up to the hype. Executives are now betting that more powerful tools will crack the complexities of human biology

Biology is not easy, by @hannahkuchler.bsky.social and @melissahei.bsky.social

And none of those in between are duds.

This is not a "UK problem". The global biopharma industry has been built on M&A.

If a company can be acquired for £46bn, as was the case with Shire, then any company can.

What is important is that investors in companies being acquired make a sufficient return to want to invest in biotech again.

However, one area that I think will be impossible is to "build bigger, better British biotechs and keep them here, rather than them being sold to multinationals".

The UK needs to pick up the pace on life sciences Focusing relentlessly on low drug costs is the wrong approach

Kate Bingham's thoughts on the UK government's life sciences strategy are worth reading.

The uptake of innovative products is essential if the Office for Life Sciences really wants to be successful in surpassing its goals.

New Executive Chair to strengthen government’s plan to unleash life sciences for a healthier, wealthier Britain Steve Bates OBE appointed to help champion research and innovation and the use of technology to transform health and grow the UK economy.

Congratulations to Steve Bates on his appointment as executive chair at the Office for Life Sciences.

Make that 40. First max score on Pointed.

It's always nice to see good news when you wake up. Congrats to the #moversandshakers team.

A debate is only the first step, genuine action needs to be taken to help people get access to neurologists to enable early diagnosis.

I'm not surprised that the trade associations are not particularly positive in their responses to this report.

There have been several similar ones since the turn of the century and successive govenments have always promised a lot and delivered only a fraction.

I hope it is different this time.

Life Sciences Sector Plan The Life Sciences Sector Plan sets out a vision and an action plan to drive growth, innovation, and better health outcomes.

The overarching ambition of the Life Sciences Sector Plan is admirable.

However, I feel it is lacking detail.

Additionally, there is a need to couple developing an innovative industry with the uptake of innovative products in the NHS. That appears to be missing.

On the AI theme, @parmy.bsky.social's "Supremacy"

I would agree on the prose. However, I think the recent iterations of some of the GPT systems have significantly improved prose compared with the output a few months ago, which will make recruitment for roles that require writing more difficult.

How do you separate the genuine writers from the AI-generated submissions? We found that significant numbers of our applicants last year used AI to generate work and in some cases CVs, and when candidates got to an assessment centre the quality of writing was much lower than seen in recent years

Need to be careful when comparing prices from one country to another. Industry talks about list prices (what they'd like to be paid) vs negotiated prices. I recall the US list price of some of the HCV drugs was 3x the negotiated price in EU, which in turn was higher than average price paid in US.

This was my favourite science road graffiti. From the 2020 Il Lombardia.

That is a sweet version of what maybe my favourite song of theirs.