Dr Carl Naraynassamy

Carl Naraynassamy LLB BSc MA EdD FRSB FFPM (hon) teaches pharmaceutical medicine at Kings College London where he is also the director of the MSc in Medical Affairs, a pioneering course that he set up 4 years ago and that remains the only one in the world.

He is passionate about education and about enabling students to practise successfully in drug development and medical affairs within the global pharmaceutical industry.

He promotes collaborative undertakings between academia and the industry for example through engaging expert industry practitioners in the supervision of dissertations and in giving medical students a hands-on exposure to the industry through the integrated MSc in Pharmaceutical Medicine.

He researches in the education and practice of pharmaceutical medicine particularly investigating the theoretical underpinning of practices in drug development and medical affairs. He approaches issues of governance and professional ethics from a stance that draws from sceptic philosophy.

Dr Naraynassamy commented:

I am grateful to the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine for recognising my work.  It has been a privilege to collaborate with the many colleagues on education programmes in many countries. 

I hope that this recognition will encourage many to engage in making pharmaceutical medicine education an even better proposition by underpinning it on an organised scholarship in pharmaceutical medicine practice. Research into practice aims to answer fundamental questions like whether there is value in reconceptualising the model of education away from ‘how we do things’ onto ‘why we do what we do’. 

Professor Maggie Rae

Maggie recently demitted as President of the Faculty of Public Health and worked closely with the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, Local Government Association and a wide range of partners who have interests in Public Health.  Maggie also has a voluntary role as president of the Epidemiology and Public Health Section of the Royal Society of Medicine.  She is committed to working with all 4 Nations of the UK and public health colleagues across the world to tackle poverty and inequalities.

It was during the COVID Pandemic that Maggie worked very closely with FPM in close liaison with the President of FPH and Professor Sir Jonathan Van Tam.  There are many synergies between Public Health and Pharmaceutical Medicine, and this was an ideal opportunity for both specialities to work closely together. Maggie has been a real advocate of the role of Pharmaceutical Medicine and the important role the specialty has in improving the Health Outcomes of the Population and Reducing Health Inequalities.

Maggie Rae is a public health specialist and has worked at National, Regional and Local levels in Public Health. She has maintained a special interest in education and training and standards in Public Health.  She is also involved in reducing health inequalities, sustainable development and improving the health outcomes of the population.  Maggie is lead for  Population and Public Health and as Head of School leads the South West Specialist Public Health Training Programme in SW NHSE Workforce Training and Education Directorate. Maggie is also works with the SW Regional Public Health Team.  She is Deputy Director for Regional Public Health Programmes and leads the SW Marmot Region Programme

Maggie is a Visiting Professor of Public Health at the University of the West of England and the University of Exeter, has been a Director of Public Health twice.  She has also worked at National Institute for Health and Social Care Clinical Excellence (NICE) and has also led on the Strategy for Reducing Health Inequalities and Local Delivery at the Department of Health – this resulted in the a narrowing of the gap in Life Expectancy and Infant Mortality

Professor Rae commented:

I am deeply honoured and grateful to the Fellowship and Awards Committee and the Board of Trustees for this award.  It has been a privilege to work alongside the President, Members and Fellows of FPM. FPM is held in very high regards and has made a fantastic contribution to so many areas of medicine and played a key role in improving the Population’s Health. 

In particular I’d like to single out the role in vaccines and antimicrobial resistance which play such a huge part in my own Specialty of Public Health. I also want to pay tribute to the role of FPM in the COVID Pandemic with the President working alongside me and other Presidents of the Academy of Royal Colleges supporting our Chief Medical Officer- Professor Sir Chris Whitty and Deputy Chief Medical Officer- Professor Sir Jonathon Van Tam who is dual trained in Public Health and Pharmaceutical Medicine. FPM simply excelled and I am so proud to be part of FPM

Dr John Rex

Dr Rex is a physician, drug developer, and a global AMR (Antimicrobial Resistance) policy advocate with more than 35 years of clinical care, drug development, and policy experience focused on antimicrobial agents. He is currently Chief Medical Officer for F2G, Ltd. (an antifungal biotech), is an operating partner with a venture capital group (Advent Life Sciences), is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the $1b AMR Action Fund that supports late-stage antimicrobial development, and was a voting member on the US Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB, 2015-2019). He also publishes an AMR-focused scientific newsletter which reaches 3,000 readers globally (http://amr.solutions/blog.html).

Dr Rex has worked steadily during his career to enable and support the development of new antimicrobial agents. This has included work advancing novel regulatory paradigms for antibacterials, publications on novel reimbursement models for antibiotics, co-founding of a public-private partnership supporting early-stage antibiotic development (CARB-X), co-founding the New Drugs for Bad Bugs (ND4BB) program of Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), and a 4-year term as Industry Representative on the FDA Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee (AIDAC, 2007–2011). His experience also includes academic patient care and teaching (McGovern Medical School-Houston; 1992-2002) as well as moving compounds from preclinical development through all development phases via both academic positions (NIH, Bethesda, MD; McGovern Medical School-Houston; 1987-2002) and VP-level roles at a multinational pharmaceutical firm (AstraZeneca, 2003-2016).

On learning of being awarded an honorary fellowship from the Faculty, Dr Rex commented:

I am deeply grateful to the Fellowship and Awards Committee and the Board of Trustees for this recognition! Along with vaccines, antimicrobial agents are the fundamental enabler of all of modern medicine — without them, it would be impossible to care for premature infants, treat cancer, have joint replacement surgery, and much more.

The rising tide of antimicrobial resistance has now been recognized as a threat to modern medicine and public health. Addressing this challenge requires concerted, sustained, and global action to avoid loss of these tools.

Scientists working within the pharmaceutical industry play a key role in this global response. It has been and remains a privilege to have had the opportunity to work both to enable the creation of these modern miracles and to ensure their ongoing existence via adequate stewardship, access, and reimbursement models. I hope that this recognition will further spread the word about the vital importance of developing and ensuring global access to effective antimicrobial agents.