The 2024 FPM Annual Symposium– Pharmaceutical medicine: tackling global challenges– will explore how health systems around the world must adapt as chronic physical and mental health issues become more prevalent, reflecting upon pharmaceutical medicine’s vital role in understanding impacts and developing mitigations.
Find out more about our inspiring speakers below.
UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance and Former Chief Medical Officer for England
Dame Sally Davies is the 40th Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University and the first woman to hold the post. She was appointed as the UK Government’s Special Envoy on AMR in 2019.
Dame Sally was the Chief Medical Officer for England and Senior Medical Advisor to the UK Government from 2011-2019. She is a leading figure in global health, having served as a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Executive Board 2014-2016, and as co-convener of the United Nations Inter-Agency Co-ordination Group (IACG) on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), reporting in 2019. In November 2020, Dame Sally was announced as a member of the new UN Global Leaders Group on AMR, serving alongside Heads of State, Ministers, and prominent figures from around the world to advocate for action on AMR.
In the 2020 New Year Honours, Dame Sally became the second woman to be appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) for services to public health and research, having received her DBE in 2009. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014 and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, USA in 2015.
Senior Strategy Adviser to the University of Nottingham School of Medicine and Former Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam Kt, MBE, FMedSci, is a doctor and public health specialist with a clinical background in emergency medicine, anaesthesia and infectious diseases. He is an expert on respiratory viruses and pandemics and currently Senior Strategy Adviser to the University of Nottingham School of Medicine. His career has also taken him to Public Health England, the World Health Organization, and the pharmaceutical and vaccine industries. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Jonathan was seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care in 2017-22 as Deputy Chief Medical Officer. He is well-known for his leadership role during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly his straight, no-nonsense, communication style from the podium at No.10 Downing Street, and for the acquisition and rollout of vaccines and antiviral drugs in the UK. He received a knighthood from Her late Majesty the Queen in her 2022 New Year’s Honours List, for services to public health. Alongside numerous other eponymous lectures, he was awarded the Royal Society’s Attenborough Award and Lecture 2022, for outstanding public engagement in science.
Executive Director, Medical Affairs and Strategic Partnerships at The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).
Amit Aggarwal has over 14 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently at LEO Pharma as Medical Director for the UK and Ireland. Prior to that he spent over a decade at Bayer where he held various roles including pharmacovigilance, Global medical affairs, and latterly as Director of Medical Affairs UK for General Medicine.
His background is as a medic, spending 5 years working clinically in the NHS, mainly in secondary care. Amit has worked on both innovative and established product launches, spanning a range of therapy areas including oncology, women’s health, cardiovascular medicine, dermatology and thrombosis in the UK and globally.
Amit holds a MA in Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge, and a MBBS from Guy’s, King’s & St Thomas’ School of Medicine.
Professor of Infection and Inequities at Queen Mary University of London and Consultant Physician at Barts Health NHS Trust.
She specialises in therapeutics and has contributed to the licensing of medicines for HIV, viral hepatitis, and SARS-CoV-2. She is the global lead author for the first-ever long-acting injectable HIV therapy.
Chloe is an expert advisor to WHO Europe on mpox and COVID-19. During the multi-country mpox (monkeypox) outbreaks she established and led an international collaborative clinical network (SHARE-net) resulting in three global case series on mpox infection.
She is the Academic Lead for Equality Diversity and Inclusion in the Faculty of Medicine at QMUL. She directs the QMUL-based SHARE research collaborative for health equity.
Chloe is the 80th President of the Medical Women’s Federation, past Chair of the British HIV Association, on the governing council for the International AIDS Society and a scientific advisor to the Medicines Patent Pool.
Clinical development lead for the AI-enhanced early phase oncology programme at Owkin
Dr Luke Kuttschreuter is a pharmaceutical physician and FPM Fellow with a passion for innovative technologies and approaches in clinical research. Luke holds a medical degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he also began his early clinical career before moving to the UK where he was part of the University of Oxford Department of Oncology as a Clinical Research Fellow in Early Phase Clinical Trials while completing his MSc in Pharmacology.
Luke is the clinical development lead for the AI-enhanced early phase oncology programme at Owkin, a TechBio which uses AI engines to de-risk discovery, development, and diagnostic technologies and reduce their time to impact. Luke also has 5 years of experience working for Pfizer Oncology in Medical Affairs and Clinical Development, where he led multiple workstreams and pilots on patient and public involvement, novel methodologies, and the use of technologies in clinical trials, early access programmes, and pre-approval RWD studies.
Chief Customer Officer Virtual Science AI
Geraldine has over 20 years of global medical affairs pharmaceutical experience, launching over 20 transformative products during her career in HIV and Hepatitis. She lead patient engagement Globally for Gilead Sciences to ensure the patient’s voice is at the heart of drug development. Before joining the industry, her background was in healthcare as a nurse specialist in HIV and community nursing. She has served as a board member on Patient-Focused Medicine Development (PFMD). Has held honorary lecturer positions at Riverside Faculty of Education and served as a government advisor on HIV Prison services.
Currently serving as Chief Customer Officer at Virtual Science AI where their unique medically trained AI is transforming the pharmaceutical industry through analytics’ and speed of insights, to bring medicines to patients in a timely and appropriate manner.
Chief Medical Officer at Prilenia
Dr Jina Swartz is an accomplished physician and researcher who holds degrees in Internal Medicine and Neurology obtained in South Africa, as well as a PhD from the University of Cambridge. In 2020 she was elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences for her global expertise in neurodegenerative disorders and neuropsychiatric drug development. With over thirty years in industry and academic Neurology, she specialises in both common and rare neurological diseases. Currently serving as Chief Medical Officer at Prilenia, she leads efforts in developing treatments for Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Previously, she held leadership roles at Exciva and Merck and Co. She contributes extensively to charitable organisations and academic initiatives, focusing on health of internally displaced populations and refugees and neurology research.
Area Medical Director Middle East and Africa AstraZeneca
Currently working as Area Medical Director Middle East and Africa AstraZeneca driving medical strategy across all therapy areas in the area as well as develop medical talents. Previously was the International (Emerging markets) Oncology Medical Director preceded by Medical Director- Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei across all therapy areas. Before that, lead the Diabetes portfolio in AstraZeneca for Asia area. Experience as a pharmaceutical physician for 20 years across Emerging countries in primary and leadership positions. Diverse therapeutic area experience in oncology, infectious diseases, cardiology, ophthalmology, allergy, diabetes and pediatrics. Has had experience of Clinical Research managing Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. Before joining industry, has had experience of working on clinical studies in cardiology.
Viraj is also the recipient of the Gufic prize for best original paper on Herbal research, Indian Pharmacological society annual conference, 2000.
Founding Head of Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Population Health
Rory Collins is a medically-qualified epidemiologist who studies how to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease in large international population-based studies. He is the founding Head of Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Population Health.
During the past 40 years, he has conducted large randomised trials which have shown unequivocally that clot-dissolving and clot-preventing treatments during a heart attack can more than halve mortality, and that lowering LDL-cholesterol with statin therapy safely reduces the risk of cardiovascular death and disability among a wide range of people. As a consequence, these treatments are being widely used.
In 2005, the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council appointed him as Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of UK Biobank. Involving 500,000 participants, it is the largest deeply-characterized prospective study globally, available for any type of health research that is in the public interest. More than 30,000 researchers worldwide use it currently, generating more than 3000 papers in 2023 alone.
(Bio coming soon)
Founder of Race in STEM (part of BioTalent)
A dynamic and open-minded thought leader, Steve is a passionate speaker, mentor, and advocate in the D&I space, where he cultivates ideas, challenges companies on how to diversify their workforce, and builds meaningful connections with a range of communities.
Steve is the Founder of Race in STEM (part of BioTalent) which seeks to encourage, question and inspire people of different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities in the world of STEM.
Dr Kailash Swarna
Dr Tao Cao
Dr Luke Kuttschreuter FFPM
Dr Frank Gray FFPM
Stephen Vinter
Dr John Porter
Dr Susan Hodgson
Dr Maria Orr
