Joseph Dunford
Vice President Speciality Brands EMENA, Accord Healthcare
Joe Dunford, Accord Healthcare’s Vice President for speciality brands, leads on new branded medicines and launching innovative treatments. Here, he discusses how the company is supporting advancements in the treatment of cancer.
What role are you playing in tackling cancer?
As a major oncology company, we now have a huge responsibility to serve patients here. Investment in cancer is something that we are committed to at Accord. We already have over 40 different cancer-related treatments across our portfolio. Across Europe, we supply a third of all injectable oncology treatments and are one of the largest suppliers of chemotherapy. We are also in the process of opening up a new research and development facility in the UK to continue to develop our knowledge and capabilities.
How is the existing range of cancer treatments evolving?
We are very proud of what we do, but we are also continually committed to doing more. We will continue to expand our range with differentiated — but also accessible and affordable — medicines, with the aim of helping patients and healthcare professionals to improve disease management and outcomes. Our ambition as a company is to ‘make it better’ for patients and physicians, and that inspires us daily.
How can innovations help improve treatments for cancer patients?
There are a number of ways in which we are exploring innovations to help make treatments easier for patients. That can involve looking to make treatments less invasive and fit better into people’s lives, such as having them at home or closer to home, making them easier to take and reducing side effects.
Ultimately, we want people to take their medication as required and, if you can make that easier for them, then outcomes should also improve. We have a particular current focus on prostate cancer, given that it is the most common cancer for men in the UK and across Europe and is on the increase as the population gets older, so we see a real patient need for further innovation here.
Our commitment is to listen and problem solve.
What is in the development pipeline?
Oncology is our fastest growing pipeline in terms of generics and branded medicine. We have a further 15 molecules under development for oncology with a key focus on the most common tumour types, such as breast, prostate and haematological cancers, as well as in supportive care. We want to help patients at every step of their cancer treatment journey.
What drives this desire to help tackle cancer?
Most of us will know somebody who has had cancer and I’m no different. So many lives are affected by it, so our goal is to keep innovating, intending to improve the current standard of care and help people living with cancer and the healthcare professionals who are treating them whether this is from the development of new products or digital health tools to support their cancer journey.
How are you tackling innovation challenges?
Our commitment involves having ongoing and active dialogues: discussions with medical teams, healthcare professionals, doctors and nurses, along with relevant patient groups who can directly represent the patient voice and experience. With them, we can identify what the challenges or limitations are with current therapies and what we can do and develop to try to make the patient journey or treatment pathway easier. Our commitment is to listen and problem solve.
How do you liaise with patient groups?
We are always open to working with patient advisory groups in a variety of different ways. They do such amazing work and are so critical in raising awareness of cancer, so people are aware of risks or symptoms and encouraged to speak with their doctor about any concerns. And these groups are incredibly helpful in supporting people when they do get a diagnosis, practically and psychologically. It is so important that people have a trusted and informed partner who understands what they are also going through, and someone to lean on during what can be a very frightening and lonely time.
