Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation

The Collaboration for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation (CASMI) (CASMI) is hosted by University College London and is committed to understanding and developing better and more sustainable means of effecting medical innovation. It aims to address the issues that have led to current failures in the translation of basic bioscience into affordable and widely adopted new treatments.
Historically, CASMI, then known as the 'Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation', was founded by the inaugural Director, Professor Richard Barker, and was coordinated both by Oxford University and University College London. In 2018, it was agreed with Oxford that for CASMI to improve the productivity, speed and sustainability of the medical innovation system is a multidisciplinary, inter-institutional and multi-sectoral endeavour demanding effective collaboration, best served by a single coordinating governance arrangement. Thus, UCL took on the mantle to lead CASMI and slightly changed the wording in the title from 'Centre' to 'Collaboration'. Close collaborative links between the founding partners persisted, whilst new alliances are forged.
Leadership.
Sir John Tooke – Chair
Richard Barker – Founder
Fellows.
Oxford Fellows.
Professor Houman Ashrafian
Professor Chas Bountra
Professor Sir Rory Collins
Professor Kay Davies
Professor Sue Dopson
Professor Andrew Farmer
Professor Adrian Hill
Professor Stephen MacMahon
Professor Robyn Norton
Professor Michael Parker
Professor Len Seymour
Professor Hugh Watkins
UCL Fellows.
Professor Nick Freemantle
Professor Dame Hazel Genn
Professor Aroon Hingorani
Professor Robert Horne
Professor Alun Hughes
Professor Philip Luthert
Professor Quentin Pankhurst
Professor Rosalind Raine
Professor David Taylor
Professor Bryan Williams
Professor Martin Utley
Projects.
Adaptive licensing.
CASMI is leading an evaluation of whether the UK would be a suitable test site for a potential adaptive licensing pilot through the European Medicines Agency. This was recently announced in the government's ‘Strategy for UK Life Sciences: One Year On’ report. The project was initiated by a workshop held at the Wellcome Trust on 2 April 2012.
Stratified medicine.
CASMI is developing recommendations on how the regulatory environment and pharmaceutical R&D process should be adapted to the needs of stratified medicine and companion diagnostics.
Regulation of cell therapy.
CASMI, supported by the Technology Strategy Board, is investigating current and anticipated regulatory obstacles to the successful commercialisation of cell-based therapies, seeking to integrate the opinion of key stakeholders to support the development of a sustainable and globally competitive UK cell therapy industry.
Partners.
SENS Foundation
Technology Strategy Board
University of Oxford
UCL
Wellcome Trust
Recent publications.
Adaptive drug development and licensing, Richard Barker & Sarah Garner, Regulatory Rapporteur. Oct 2012
A flexible blueprint for the future of drug development, Richard Barker, Lancet. Jan 2010