The Psychiatry Consortium was named winner of the Partnership and Collaboration Award at last night’s Bionow Awards 2022 (16 March 2023).
Established in 2019, and managed by Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC), the Psychiatry Consortium is a strategic collaboration of leading medical research charities and pharmaceutical companies. It focuses on identifying and validating novel drug targets to address the many unmet therapeutic needs of people living with mental health conditions.
The Psychiatry Consortium was recognised for its international collaborative efforts to drive innovative research and provide unique opportunities for academic researchers to collaborate with industry experts, turning scientific ideas into drug discovery projects.
The Psychiatry Consortium Partners have committed approximately £4 million in research funding to deliver high-risk, high-value collaborative drug discovery projects, increasing the chance of commercial success in this essential but challenging field.
Dr Ekta Patel, Partnership Manager, Psychiatry Consortium, said:
“Receiving the Partnership and Collaboration Award is fantastic recognition for the Psychiatry Consortium. The scale and impact of mental illness across society is huge. Together, the Consortium partners have worked hard to create a global focal point for psychiatric drug discovery and enable a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities in this area. We see first-hand how vital partnership and collaboration can be towards bringing much-needed treatments to patients faster.”
Professor Chris Molloy, CEO of Medicines Discovery Catapult, said:
“We are hugely proud of the Psychiatry Consortium. Whilst we see the impact of our work in every project, it is very special to receive this recognition from our colleagues and peers in the industry. Our Psychiatry Consortium partners show intense dedication, turning research into mental health treatments that are so desperately needed. We are delighted to enable them to turn world-class research into improved patient outcomes.”
Bionow is a not-for-profit membership organisation supporting the biomedical, pharma and life sciences sectors across the North of England.
The Partnership and Collaboration Award is a new category for the 2022 awards. It is for life science organisations that have achieved a significant commercial outcome through collaboration or partnership involving at least one life sciences industry partner and at least one other partner from academia, NHS, charity, third sector or industry.
MDC was recognised as a finalist in several categories at last night’s awards. Dr Michael Eyres and Dr Laura Ajram were shortlisted for the Rising Star Award. MDC also received joint recognition in the Project of the Year category alongside its partner, Alchemab Therapeutics, for a project identifying candidate therapeutic antibodies from individuals demonstrating resilience in neurodegenerative disease.
