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A new centre aimed at reducing the risks of adverse drug effects is to be developed with a £3.7 million grant from the Medical Research Council (MRC).
The new Centre for Drug Safety Science will see scientists from the universities of Liverpool and Manchester work with pharmaceutical companies to develop new medicines.
It aims to understand adverse drug reactions and work out how to improve the design, tailoring and selection of drugs to avoid them.
Director of the new centre, Professor Kevin Park said: “Science has made huge advances in drug therapies for medical conditions and in the majority of patients these treatments work extremely effectively and save lives. Our team will focus on drugs that have the ability to treat disease but may, in some cases, react badly to the biology of individual patients.”
Adverse drug reactions are the cause of one in 15 hospital admissions and cost the NHS over £650 million every year.
The MRC is investing in the centre, based at the university of Liverpool’s School of Biomedical Sciences, to investigate drug safety and fill gaps in research.
It will also be supported by AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer, Merck and work with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
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