Dystopia or Utopia?

Stop and think for a moment about how far we’ve come in healthcare and medicine.

In the early 1920s, life expectancy in the US was around 55 years for both men and women. The biggest causes of death back then were heart disease, pneumonia, and tuberculosis (TB). Heart disease remains the  number one killer globally – but we know a lot more about it; lifespans can be extended with lifestyle changes, treatments, and surgery. Pneumonia, too, has many treatment options that did not exist in the 1920s, as does TB (although death rates globally for TB are still high, despite the availability of vaccines and cures).

I’ve been writing about the pharma industry for over 15 years, and, even in that short time, I’ve seen amazing advances. I like to point to the commercialization of cell therapy as one of the biggest breakthroughs. In my first year as a writer for the pharma industry, I presented my editor at the time with a news story about a cell therapy being developed by academics. I was told to never suggest a story again. “Those therapies will never come to market.” I really wish I could remember more about the story. Perhaps it was about the research coming out of the University of Pennsylvania? I’ll never know…

The point is that things that seem impossible today can be made possible in the future – and sometimes it happens sooner than you expect. Even CAR T pioneer Carl June didn’t see big things in store for his work. In an interview with The Medicine Maker, he said “No one could have predicted what has happened in CAR T – for many reasons! For one thing, it actually worked a lot better in our initial trials in humans than it had worked in mice. That’s a very unusual situation; over the years, many mice have been cured of cancer but there are still only very few new therapies for humans.”

Several years ago, we published a cover feature about the long-term future of healthcare. What will things look like in 100 years’ time? As part of the feature, I explored a writing competition, where short stories painted a mostly bleak picture including patent-protected artificial limbs, AI physicians suffering from burnout, antibiotic apocalypse, patients that are more robot than human, and more. A dystopia is definitely one path we could be facing; already in parts of the present day world we see dystopian-like access to therapies and healthcare. But it could also be a utopia – if stakeholders get things right.

The Medicine Maker will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary in September. Anniversaries can be a time to reflect on the past, but I’d rather think about the future and how we can improve things and build better healthcare for all.

As such, we will be publishing a feature that asks:

What key disruptors have driven the industry over the past ten years – and how will this change in the next 10 years?

What single change could dramatically improve the pharma industry as we know it?

What big shifts in drug development and manufacturing would you like to see in the next 10 years?

I want people from all over the industry – and all over the world – to share their views. We are accepting submissions! All you have to do is send in a short, passionate response to one of the three questions above to [email protected].

• Submissions should be a minimum of 200 words; however, if you are inspired and wish to write more then please do so. There is no upper word count. 
• Submissions will be published online, but we will also include as many in print as possible.
• We will not publish any promotional content, this includes content discussing a company’s services, products, expertise, marketing messages, and so on.
• Only one submission per person; no more than two submissions per company. 
• Aim for thought leadership. Be provoking and inspirational.
• If we receive a high number of submissions, please bear in mind that it may not be possible to send out proofs prior to publication.

The deadline for submission is: August 12

Some people have already asked me if contributing to the future is free. Yes, it is free! Editorial content in The Medicine Maker is always free (caveat: content must always be non-promotional. If you want marketing, that is something you have to pay for – we have to keep the lights on too).

I really look forward to reading your views on how we can build a utopia for pharma and healthcare.

Please send your submissions and questions to: [email protected].