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Author: Louise Stanley

UK healthcare leader Richard Meddings to chair Birmingham Health Partners 

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners.

Richard Meddings CBE, the former chair of NHS England, has been appointed Chair of Birmingham Health Partners – signifying the importance, ambition and leadership of the second city’s NHS-university partnership. Richard will take up his role from October 1st 2025. 

Richard completed a three-year term at NHS England until March 2025. During his tenure, he oversaw the reorganisation which led to NHS Improvement, NHS-X and Health Education England merging into NHS England, which reduced costs and placed more funding directly into patient care. Additionally, the first NHS Long Term Workforce Plan was delivered and Integrated Care Boards formally established.  

Alongside his NHS England role, Richard was a non-executive director at Genomics England – established by the UK Government to bring genomic medicine into routine NHS care and transform diagnosis and treatment of cancer and rare conditions. 

Originally from Wolverhampton, Richard moved into healthcare leadership after a 30-year career in financial services and banking, where his senior executive roles included Group Executive Director at Standard Chartered, following finance director roles at the Woolwich and Barclays. He has served in non-executive board roles for numerous organisations including Legal & General, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and TSB Bank, as well as seven years on the Board of HM Treasury.  

Commenting on his appointment, Richard said: “Today’s NHS is a remarkable machine, providing record levels of care, and it has been humbling and inspiring to witness that front-line work in action. In tandem, research innovations are coming thick and fast which will enable us to be more proactive with patients, address capacity issues and harness the power of new technology. Nowhere are these opportunities greater than in my native West Midlands, making it a very exciting time to join BHP.” 

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, Chair of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Richard brings gravitas, wider connections and additional vision to Birmingham Health Partners. BHP’s member organisations will benefit greatly from his deep understanding of the NHS and the promise that Birmingham’s national genomics programme offers to our population, the regional life science industry, and the future of medicine.” 

Dame Yve Buckland, Chair of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Richard’s leadership experience, skills and insights will be invaluable to our important collaboration and the opportunity we have to advance new treatments, diagnostics, and technologies to improve the health and care of our communities – which include some of the most challenged in the country.” 

Sir David Nicholson, Chair of Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, said: “It is tremendous to welcome Richard back to the West Midlands. Birmingham is a UK leading centre hosting one of the most substantial Government investments in research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) amongst others. Our work in health data, addressing health inequalities and optimising clinical trials is already improving healthcare. It is an exciting time across our partnership.”  

Professor Neil Hanley, Executive Director of Birmingham Health Partners and Pro-Vice Chancellor and Head of the College of Medicine & Health at the University of Birmingham: ‘I am absolutely delighted we have persuaded Richard to become our next chair of Birmingham Health Partners. Combining business and financial acumen with his experience at the helm of NHS England, he will give us a unique perspective on the opportunities presented by the NHS 10-year plan and Life Sciences Sector Plan. We’re delighted to have him join our Board.” 

BHP, established in 2015, is a strategic alliance between nine University and NHS members who collaborate to deliver groundbreaking translational research, world-class education and training, and the highest quality patient care. 

NIHR Clinical Research Facility celebrates year of growth and success

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners, Clinical trials, Experimental medicine.

Birmingham’s NIHR/Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility (CRF) has celebrated yet another successful year, with thousands of patients and volunteers taking part in pioneering studies that are shaping the future of medicine.

Established in 2001, the CRF provides a high-quality environment for experimental and early-phase research across all age groups.

Spanning two of Birmingham Health Partners’ NHS member Trusts, the CRF runs its adult unit from Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB), part of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and its paediatric unit from Birmingham Children’s Hospital, part of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (BWC).

Between 31 March 2024 and 1 April 2025, the CRF supported 409 active studies – 334 at UHB and 75 at BWC – involving 13,503 patient visits and the recruitment of 2,514 participants.

The facility has seen a particular growth in Advanced Therapy Investigational Medicinal Product (ATIMP) studies, which explore innovative treatments based on genes, cells, or tissues. It has also expanded work in maternal health, mental health and neonatal research, as well as opening studies in new disease areas.

Collaboration is central to the CRF’s approach, with almost half of its studies (48%) co-delivered in partnership with other NIHR infrastructure, including the Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre. This way of working ensures expertise and resources are shared to maximise patient benefit and research impact.

The year also saw significant investment, with over £4 million secured by the facility to open a new clinical research unit in the MIDRU building at Heartlands Hospital, as well as new laboratory and endoscopy equipment purchased for both QEHB and Good Hope Hospital.

Patients themselves have spoken warmly of their experience at the CRF, with recent feedback including: “Every week has been a pleasure visiting the Wellcome Research Centre”, “All staff were extremely friendly, supportive and knowledgeable” and “They are kind and thoughtful, giving you all the information you need to feel comfortable”.

Jo Gray, Head of Research and Development Operations, said: “I’m incredibly proud of all our colleagues in the Clinical Research Facility for their dedication and hard work in delivering patient-centred research across a wide range of studies and disease areas. Their impact on patients is evident in the feedback we receive, and we look forward to building on last year’s successes through continued collaboration with our industry partners.”

Members of the CRF team gathered to celebrate another successful year

New vaccine trial for head and neck cancer patients

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Cancer outcomes, Clinical trials, Experimental medicine.

Patients in Birmingham who have advanced head and neck cancers may be eligible to take part in a new clinical trial of a potential cancer vaccine, supported by the NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP).

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, part of BHP founder-members University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), is one of 15 sites across the country aiming to recruit more than 100 patients over the next year.

The investigational cancer vaccine in this latest trial on the platform uses mRNA technology to help the immune system recognise and kill cancer cells which express human papillomavirus (HPV) proteins.

The first head and neck cancer patients in England have received the investigational mRNA cancer vaccine in the clinical trial, known as AHEAD-MERIT (BNT113-01), with more patients to soon be enrolled at their nearest NHS hospital. 

More than 11,000 new head and neck cancer cases are diagnosed in England every year, with cancers typically developing in the mouth, throat or voice box.  

Despite advances in care for patients with head and neck cancer, the advanced form of the disease is difficult to treat and has high rates of recurrence, with two-year survival rates at under 50%.

The investigational cancer vaccine is designed to encode two proteins that are frequently found in head and neck squamous cell cancers associated with human papillomavirus (HPV-16). This is the most common type of head and neck cancer, accounting for 95% of these types of cancers, and the vaccine aims to train the immune system to fight the cancer.

NHS England is partnering with life sciences company BioNTech to help identify potentially eligible patients to refer to NHS hospitals running the clinical trial.

Dr Paul Sanghera, Consultant Oncologist and Principal Investigator of the trial at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, said: “This clinical trial marks an important step forward in the search for better treatments for advanced head and neck cancers, which remain a significant challenge in oncology.

“These cancers are notoriously difficult to treat, and access to this investigational vaccine could offer patients a potential new option in their treatment journey. While we are still in the early stages, the hope is that this trial will pave the way for improved outcomes for those living with these challenging conditions.”

Matthew Metcalfe, Hospital Executive Director at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, said: “We are incredibly proud to be one of the 15 sites across the country taking part in this important clinical trial. It reflects our ongoing commitment to driving forward research aimed at improving outcomes for patients in Birmingham and beyond, offering new hope to those facing these challenging diagnoses.”

Dr Iain Foulkes, Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: “It’s great to see more clinical trials of vaccines for head and neck cancer supported by the Cancer Research UK-funded Southampton Clinical Trials Unit.

“Research into personalised cancer treatments is vital. There are over 200 different types of cancer and it’s unlikely there will ever be a single cure that works for everyone. That’s why it’s vital that we support a wide range of research, so that more people can live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”

More cancer vaccines news from across BHP

Birmingham academic appointed Clinical Lead of new NIHR network

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners, Clinical trials.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded £6.5 million, funded jointly through a public-private partnership with the pharmaceutical industry, to establish a UK-wide Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC) Network. The Network is hosted by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL), with Birmingham Health Partners’ Managing Director Professor Lorraine Harper as its Clinical Lead, and will commence formally on 1 September 2025.

The new Network will provide strategic coordination of all 21 CRDCs across the the UK. It will play a key role in building research capacity, streamlining the interface between industry and the UK clinical trials delivery infrastructure, and enhancing efficiency to deliver commercial clinical research through harmonised processes, in line with the Government’s call to turbocharge medical research earlier this year.

The Network will:

  • Provide strategic leadership and national coordination across the 21 CRDCs across the UK
  • Offer a central point of contact for industry sponsors
  • Facilitate study feasibility, placement and setup across the UK
  • Foster collaboration with regulators, wider NIHR and UK-wide delivery infrastructure, and other key stakeholders to advance UK Clinical Research Delivery
  • Support workforce development, inclusion, and public involvement
  • Facilitate the integration of the Primary Care CRDCs (PC-CRDCs) in England in autumn 2025, adopting them into the Network

By aligning CRDC efforts and offering a cohesive offer to industry, the Network will ensure that the CRDCs deliver against industry expectations for faster, more efficient set up and delivery of commercial research in the UK.

Lorraine Harper, Professor of Nephrology at the University of Birmingham and Managing Director of Birmingham Health Partners, is the Director of the Central and North West Midlands CRDC and has been appointed Clinical Lead of the new Network. She said: “The vision of the Network is to ensure equitable access, diverse recruitment and a much more efficient model of trial delivery, improving NHS and patient access to trials. With Birmingham Health Partners already leading a regional programme to reduce bureaucracy in clinical trials, and BHP member Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospitals hosting the Central and North West Midlands CRDC, this is an exciting opportunity to align all our work and deliver a ‘gold standard’ for commercial clinical trials.”

BHP founding member Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust hosts the £7m Central and West North Midlands (C&NWM) CRDC, working closely with regional partners Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust – host of Staffordshire and Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Health Research Partnership (SSHERPA) – and the Black Country Provider Collaborative.

The C&NWM region, home to 4.2 million people, includes many of the UK’s most economically deprived communities who face significant health inequalities and higher rates of serious illness. The CRDC will focus on addressing these inequities by increasing access to clinical trials for patients who have the greatest need – dovetailing with BHP’s strategic focus on addressing health inequalities and giving greater opportunities for residents to participate in research.

Professor Melanie Davies, Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Leicester and Honorary Consultant Diabetologist for University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, and Director of the CRDC Network, said: “We are really proud that University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust has been awarded this funding to host this federated CRDC Network across the four nations of the UK. We are fully committed to working with our partners across the UK to deliver faster, more efficient set up and delivery of commercial research. We want to drive increased investment from industry and enable even more people to take part in studies that can lead to the future approval of new medicines and devices for the benefit of patients in the UK.”

Dr Maria Koufali, NIHR Life Sciences Industry Director, said: “The UK CRDC Network is a critical part of our national effort to transform UK clinical research delivery. By streamlining trial set-up and expanding access into community and underserved settings, it will help make the UK one of the most attractive destinations globally for commercial research. This means faster access to innovative treatments for patients, greater investment in the NHS and a stronger life sciences sector that boosts the health and wealth of the nation.”

Adding dendritic cell vaccine to liver cancer therapy slows disease progression

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Clinical trials, Experimental medicine.

Patients with intermediate-stage primary liver cancer who received a vaccine of dendritic cells (DC) alongside their cancer therapy saw a longer time without tumour progression in response to standard treatment – found a study by BHP founding-member the University of Birmingham, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

The results of the ImmunoTACE trial, the first clinical trial of its kind, published in Clinical Cancer Research, found improved progression-free survival (PFS) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who received the cell-based vaccine expanded from their own white blood cells. The vaccine was administered alongside usual treatment with tumour chemoembolisation, a treatment for blood vessels that feed the tumour, plus chemotherapy.

The collaborative trial between the University of Birmingham, fellow BHP members University Hospitals Birmingham, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Aintree University Hospital and Clatterbridge saw 48 patients recruited to receive either standard treatment alone or standard treatment plus a cellular vaccine using dendritic cells loaded with cancer antigens to stimulate immune responses against the cancer.

In the experimental arm of the trial the average time to progression of the tumour was 18 months compared with only 10 months in the group who only received standard treatment.

Professor David Adams, Chief Investigator of the study, Emeritus Professor of Hepatology at the University of Birmingham and past Director of BHP, said: “The results from this phase 2 trial are very promising and offer a potential new treatment option for patients with primary liver cancer, one of the highest causes of cancer-related death worldwide.

“As far as we know, ImmunoTACE is the first controlled clinical trial to show that a cell-based vaccine using lab-grown dendritic cells can improve patient outcomes with liver cancer. The results warrant further investigation and could in future offer much needed hope and a better treatment option for patients.”

The vaccine is made with dendritic cells (DC) which help orchestrate the immune system’s response to diseases including cancer by activating immune killer cells to recognise and destroy cancer cells.

The dendritic cells used in the study were expanded from the patients’ own white blood cells by growing them in a purpose-built laboratory for eight days with proteins taken from cancer cells. The cells allow the immune system to see these proteins and then to mount an immune attack on the cancer cells that bear them.

Patients received the DC vaccine at the same time as standard treatment with chemo-embolisation and then monthly for a further three months.

While dendritic cells are produced naturally in the body, studies have shown that in patients with cancer they can become “exhausted” and get stuck within the tumour rather than carrying cellular information back to the lymph nodes where they can activate immune killer cells. The idea of DC vaccine is to restore and uncover immune responses to the cancer. The current trial design reports that this therapy can be both affordable and effective.

Dr Yuk Ting Ma, lead author of the study and Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Birmingham, and an Honorary Consultant in Hepatobiliary Oncology at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said: “These are very promising findings that demonstrate the potential use of dendritic cell vaccines in a widely prevalent and hard to treat cancer. With our approach to developing the vaccine, focusing on stimulation with multiple tumour antigens, we have shown a strong signal that we believe warrants testing in larger trials in patients with liver cancer.

“Dendritic cell vaccines also represent a potential additional immune therapy to add to current checkpoint inhibitors. Future studies will look at whether adding DC vaccination to standard immunotherapy can derive better outcomes for patient with HCC who show only modest responses to current checkpoint inhibitor drugs.”

New trial to test novel diagnostic for bladder cancer recurrence

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Clinical trials, Early diagnosis and detection.

Nonacus, an early cancer testing company, has announced two West Midlands-based trials to assess a new way of monitoring for recurrence of bladder cancer, using a novel test developed in collaboration with researchers from BHP founding-member the University of Birmingham.

The at-home urine test uses Nonacus’ highly-sensitive liquid biopsy technology, which was developed in conjunction with a panel of biomarkers developed by researchers from the University’s Bladder Cancer Research Centre.

Called Galeas Bladder, the test was developed while the company based itself at the University’s bio-incubator, the BioHub Birmingham, and a previous Cancer Research UK-funded study has already shown that it can accurately and consistently detect the presence of bladder cancer from a urine sample.

Professor Rik Bryan, Director of the Bladder Cancer Research Centre, said: “These trials are the culmination of eight years of collaborative research and development between the University of Birmingham and Nonacus, which has the potential to help the millions of patients at higher risk of bladder cancer across our country and worldwide.”

Tony Hickson, Chief Business Officer at Cancer Research UK said: “As funders of much of the world-class, cutting-edge cancer research happening in the UK, we offer unique opportunities to commercial partners looking for early involvement in new discoveries. Having Nonacus on board to help transform promising findings in the lab into a new non-invasive test to diagnosis bladder cancer is a testament to how commercial collaborations have the potential to transform the lives of patients. We are looking forward to seeing the next steps as the test is developed and rolled out to the UK and beyond.”

Jeannie Rigby, CEO of Action Bladder Cancer, said ” Bladder cancer can often be diagnosed late and has a high level of recurrence – which can lead to poor outcomes for patients – and bladder cancer has been neglected in terms of new research in the past. Action Bladder Cancer UK, bladder cancer patients and their families, welcome this exciting development in improving testing for bladder cancer.”

Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, commented: “Health-tech is about better care for patients, shorter waiting times and more good jobs here in the West Midlands. Through my Growth Plan we are making this one of the best places in the country to develop and roll out new treatments – from expanding our innovation clusters to supporting local medtech businesses to grow and export. The technology I’ve seen today is proof that when we back science, patients and the economy both win.”

Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, added: “In a region renowned for engineering, with Richard Parker as Mayor, the West Midlands is setting the pace for medical technology. Nonacus’ innovative approach to testing for bladder cancer will help save patients time and the NHS money. Life sciences is a growth sector for the West Midlands and the UK as a whole combining the power of our universities, the creativity of our businesses and the strength of our NHS.”