LONDON, October 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

The Economist Event's inaugural War on Cancer 2015, held in London yesterday, was host to some of the industry's most high-profile leaders in oncology from across the field and around Europe. With a focus on cross-sector collaboration to improve the health and wealth of Europe's nations and people, the programme examined leading initiatives in policy and financing, innovation in prevention, treatment and diagnosis and new methods of community engagement. 

War on Cancer was attended by over 200 people which included a mix of industry leaders, stakeholders, and high quality national and international media.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine; Founder, Nantworks, said: "We have the opportunity to completely change the‎ paradigm of cancer treatment and, alongside capabilities to extract the precise genomic signature of a patient's cancer, engineer treatments that are personalised for that person's particular cancer."

Elisabeth Prchla, General Manager UK & Ireland, Merck Serono, commented: "Oncology is a key priority for us and we're committed to tackling the war on cancer head on. We're focused on addressing the areas of high unmet need and developing innovative cancer medicines. One of the key challenges in the UK is access to these innovative medicines. That's why we want to partner with the NHS to develop a sustainable solution."

Speakers offered contrasting and thought-provoking commentary on how to deal with the most pressing of sector trends leading to lively debate amongst the packed room of delegates. Topics covered included how to improve cancer control systems, erasing the human and financial burden by maintaining innovation across the treatment pathway and the role of society and how to widen the net of cancer stakeholders.  

Paul Catchpole, Value & Access at The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said: "The Economist Events' War on Cancer has brought together leaders in oncology from around Europe to share their thoughts on policy and financing, innovation in prevention, treatment and diagnosis. It is clear that we stand on the brink of a really major opportunity to increase cancer cures and deliver longer and better quality lives for all cancer patients through the ground-breaking innovations that are coming to the market over the next few years, such as the new cancer immunotherapies, delivering personalized treatments tailored to individual patients' needs. To enable patients to benefit quickly from these treatments, the need has never been greater for all stakeholders to join together: regulatory, medicines assessment bodies and payers and have earlier dialogues in the context of improved horizon scanning.  All parts of the system need to prepare earlier and in a fully co-ordinated way so that these medicines can be adopted as soon as they become available to drive up further overall cancer survival rates."

Key speakers at War on Cancer 2015 included: 

• Hans-Georg Eichler, Senior Medical Officer, European Medicines Agency
• Stuart Fletcher, Chief Executive Officer, Bupa
• Francesco De Lorenzo, President, European Cancer Patient Coalition; President, Italian Federation of Volunteer Based Cancer Organisations
• Jane Maher, Joint Chief Medical Officer, Macmillan Cancer Support; NHS Clinical Leader and Consultant Clinical Oncologist, Mount Vernon Cancer Centre
• Sean Duffy, National Clinical Director for Cancer, NHS England
• Alojz Peterie MEP, Member of the European Parliament; Co-Chair, Health Working Group; President, MEPs Against Cancer Group
• John Ryan, Acting Director, Health and Food Safety Directorate General, European Commission
• Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine; Founder, Nantworks
• Paul Catchpole, Director of Value and Access, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry
• Vivek Muthu, Chair, The Economist Intelligence Unit Healthcare
• Annie Pannelay, Principal- Health Care, The Economist Intelligence Unit
• Peter Clark, Oncologist; Chairman, Cancer Drugs Fund
• Carole Longson, Director, Centre for Health Technology Evaluation; Executive Director, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
• Silvia Ondategui-Parra, Partner-MED Healthcare and Life Sciences Leader-Commercial Market Access Leader, EY
• Cai Grau, Clinical Professor, Department of Oncology, Aarhus University
• Peter Lebowitz, Head of Global Oncology Research and Development, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
• Alain Huriez, Founder and Chairman, The European Personalised Medicine Association (EPEMED)
• Andrew Schiermeier, Senior Vice-President and Head of Global Oncology, Merck Serono
• Alfredo Covelli, Head of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs, Region Europe, Novartis Oncology
• Michael Zaiac, Head of Medical Affairs EMEA, Celgene
• Cary Adams, Chief Executive Officer, Union for International Cancer Control
• Kevin Harrington, Professor of Biological Cancer Therapies; Team Leader-Targeted Therapy Team,, The Institute of Cancer Research
• Christopher Wild, Director, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organisation

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Platinum sponsor: EY 

Our Global Life Sciences Sector brings together a worldwide network of more than 7,000 sector-focused assurance, tax, transaction and advisory professionals to anticipate trends, identify implications and develop points of view on how to respond to the critical sector issues.

Platinum sponsor: Elekta 

Elekta is a human care company pioneering significant innovations and clinical solutions for treating cancer.

Platinum sponsor: Merck Serono 

Merck is a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials.

Silver Sponsor: Baxalta 

Baxalta Incorporated is a $6 billion global biopharmaceutical leader developing, manufacturing and commercializing therapies for orphan diseases and underserved conditions in hematology, oncology and immunology.

Silver Sponsor: Novartis 

Novartis Oncology is a global leader in providing a broad range of innovative therapies to help improve the lives of cancer patients.

Silver Sponsor: Varian Medical Systems 

Global manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy and brachytherapy.

About Consilium Strategic Communications 

Consilium Strategic Communications is a global leader in strategic healthcare communications advisory with offices in London and New York. Consilium's highly-skilled team provides strategic, long-term advice to healthcare companies, boards, senior decision makers and executives on critical communications programmes and stakeholder challenges. The Company has established deep knowledge across all areas of the global healthcare sector through broad experience in representing international clients spanning the Fortune 500, FTSE 100, FTSEurofirst 300 and FTSE 250, through to discrete specialist reputation management projects.

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