November 2026 – The Pharmafile Brief
Welcome to the November issue of The Pharmafile Brief, where we bring you the latest developments and conversations shaping healthcare, life sciences and pharma.
This month we examine the challenges of managing chronic disease and pain and the continuing debate around access to medicinal cannabis. We also look more broadly at how better diagnosis, investment in new therapies and technologies such as AI are changing the way chronic conditions are understood and managed.
Chief executive of the Cannabis Industry Council Mike Morgan-Giles argues that access to cannabis-based medicines via the NHS remains difficult, thanks in part to a “mismatch” between how these are made and how they’re expected to prove themselves. As always we include too our Five Facts on the current themes.
Tara Bruner’s focus on chronic disease and pain simultaneously references another theme for this month – the role of the laboratory in clinical care. Specifically, she cites the improvements to rheumatic disease outcomes derived from early intervention: better testing protocols are helping to boost diagnostic accuracy at the initial stages.
The gain isn’t all one way – laboratory developed testing (LDT) is a massively growing market, driven by the strain on healthcare budgets trying to cope with the increased burden of chronic disease and associated pain. Alongside the private sector, public investment has boosted two UK spin-outs focused on chronic illnesses.
Patient health must remain the foremost concern throughout, urges Sanjeev Sachdeva. No matter how rigorous the evaluation before approval, ultimately drug safety can only be judged once a therapy interacts with patients. Here, AI can now play a pivotal role, he asserts, reducing operational effort and risk, accelerating both reporting and compliance at an earlier stage and freeing medical professionals’ time for their primary roles.
Lastly, in an edition highlighting the value of lab collaboration, we report on a highlight of the recent European Laboratory Day, the EFLM Leaders in the Lab Awards. The winners are four young scientists each responsible for pioneering breakthroughs and advances in diagnostic innovation and healthcare safety.
Our news round-up includes the £52m UKRI award for five research hubs developing technologies to detect disease earlier and support people to manage their health outside hospital; NEC’s joining a European project using AI for pandemic vaccine design; and a survey highlighting the mental health burden upon rare disease sufferers and their families.
Appointments-wise, there’s CDMO Coriolis Pharma’s pick of Dr Teun van der Heide as its new CEO; Jason Mieding’s move to a newly created COO role at MedPharm; and former GSK CMO Dr Murray Stewart’s move to EnteroBiotix.
We hope you enjoy the return of The Pharmafile Brief, and look out for the next issue in December.
