Top doctor hails biomedical revolution

One of London's top doctors has said the UK is on the verge of a biomedical revolution that could transform healthcare.

Professor Sir Robert Lechler, executive director of King's Health Partners and Vice-principle of King's College, said the emergence of personalised medicine, advances in regenerative medicine and the spread of consumer technology that can track health, such as Apple's new Health app, is transforming the world of health care.

Speaking at the Codex London Innovation Summit Sir Robert said: "We are entering a biomedical revolution. Healthcare will change beyond recognition in ways we can predict but also in ways we can't."

Sir Robert highlighted the recent stem cell breakthroughs in relation to diabetes as an example of the increasing pace of change in the sector and the growing possibilities.

Advances in technology are bringing down the cost of developing drugs as well as speeding up their development.

Sir Robert said London's exposure to top universities, it's diverse population and innovative research facilities such as the Francis Crick Institute meant the capital is well placed to be at the centre of the global biomedical industry.

But he cautioned that London was falling behind the likes of Boston and San Francisco in terms of investment into the industry and patenting discoveries.

Sir Robert said: "We're going to have to keep up."

Speaking alongside Sir Robert, AstraZeneca's executive Vice President for innovative medicine and early development Dr Mene Pangalos agreed that healthcare is at a "tipping point".

Dr Pangalos highlighted intelligent medicines as a particularly exciting area, saying: "Think about pills that have small nano sensors in them that can tell you if they are having the desired effect on your blood sugar or lipids and tell your smartphone. I think we'll start to see those sorts of things in shop windows in the not too distant future."