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The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement is costly, what does the UK need to do? | Aston Angle
As far as trade is concerned, the EU exit has been rather costly to the UK. At the Centre for Business Prosperity, we have been tracking the performance of UK trade in recent years. The UK’s trade dropped sharply during COVID. Like other nations, this was due to the global recession and supply chain disruptions. However, the UK failed to recover and enjoy the boom, despite the tariff-free terms of trade in goods set out in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). The UK now trades less with the EU, its largest trading partner, than in 2019. During the same period, Germany and the Netherlands grew trade with the EU by nearly a quarter, and US trade with the EU has also grown considerably. Reports suggest, including those from the British Chambers of Commerce, that exporting to the EU has become much more costly and in some cases, unviable. It appears that the “certainty” provided by the TCA has not reversed the declining trend of the UK-EU trade so far. Our new paper for the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) has found that UK exports experienced a large, negative, statistically significant decline in 2021 at the end of the transition after the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was put into force. We estimate that this amounts to a 22% reduction in exports to the EU and a 26% reduction in imports from the EU over the first half of 2021, relative to the counterfactual scenario of the UK remaining in the EU. How did this happen? After all, the TCA ensures that goods moving between the UK and the EU have no tariffs or quotas, so long as the rules of origin are complied with. Rules of origin help you work out where your goods originate from and which goods are covered in trade agreements. Our research found that non-tariff measures (NTMs) were responsible for the adverse TCA effect on UK trade with the EU and that the magnitude of loss was significant. It was equivalent to a reduction of £12.4 billion in UK exports over the first six months period of 2021. This equals 16% of UK total exports in the first half of 2019 and 70% of the documented total reduction in the EU exports in the same period. A number of factors can be attributed to the decline of UK exports to the EU. In particular, the increased trade frictions that occurred mainly due to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) as a result of entering the TCA. Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures refer to the EU controls to protect animal, plant or public health. And technical barriers to trade (TBT) refers to mandatory technical regulations and voluntary standards that define specific characteristics that a product should have, such as its size, shape, design, labelling/marking/packaging, functionality or performance. On average, for the first six months of 2021, a 1% increase in SPS resulted in a 13–15% reduction in exports to the EU, most notably in the food and drink, wood and chemicals sectors. Furthermore, a 1% increase in TBT led to a 2–3% reduction in exports, especially in metals, equipment, machines and miscellaneous industrial products. What next? Since the post-Brexit dysfunctions are now diagnosed, in theory we could move on. The UK can directly tackle the trade challenges, so long as other things, such as politics, do not stand in the way. Fundamentally, what needs to happen is the removal or relief of the root causes coded by the TCA – the trade barriers newly erected. This is a key task; it is challenging but not impossible. Trade frictions due to the SPS measures are an acute problem of Brexit. Reducing some of the non-tariff measures between the EU-UK would help by exploring other mechanisms such as equivalent SPS measures or other ways to reduce businesses burden to a minimum. The technical barriers to trade are more complicated and challenging and they could potentially cause significant damage to the UK economy. Despite its limitation, maintaining and broadening the established arrangements of the current TCA provision, through some form of mutual recognition of specific practices or international regulations for selected sectors, should be the ambition of UK government to help ease the TBT trade barriers. Future EU-UK co-operation is critical and mutually beneficial but requires political will and strong leadership. In the short and medium term, supporting firms should be the priority, especially small- and medium-sized firms that are productive enough to have exported to the EU in the past, but now face hurdles to continue exporting. These firms tend to be limited on resource but have the infrastructure and ambition to internationalise. Targeted support for specific challenges could be also fruitful. The UK Department for International Trade Export Support Service, the British Chambers of Commerce and local growth hubs have the expertise and experience to help firms export. Therefore, resources should be made available to allow for customised and responsive support with exports, as well as taking advantage of technologies that can identify and reach businesses who require support. Provision should also be made to collect feedback on the quality of the support provided, to enable further improvement. Helping businesses continue to access EU markets, while enabling the economy to take advantage of welfare-enhancing benefits from trade, remains imperative. Given the economic benefits of the roll-out, the new free trade agreements are expected to be limited and effective only in the long term. UK domestic policies should be the focus to improve the competitiveness of exporters and their ecosystem. By Professor Jun Du Director of the Centre for Business Prosperity Professor of Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship, Aston Business School Lecturer in Politics and International Relations School of Social Science and Humanities Dr Oleksandr Shepotylo Senior Lecturer, Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship, Aston Business School
ChristianaCare is out to revolutionize health care. One of the country’s most dynamic health care systems, ChristianaCare is partnering with two leaders in medical and therapy services to provide comprehensive, integrated virtual health services 24/7 to colleges, universities and other institutions of higher education. Together with PursueCare and SimpleTherapy, ChristianaCare created a bundled health care product that combines general medical services from ChristianaCare’s Center for Virtual Health, mental health and addiction treatment programs from PursueCare and hyper-personalized musculoskeletal care from SimpleTherapy. ‘The future of health care is virtual’ “At ChristianaCare, we know that the future of health care is virtual,” said Sharon Anderson, MS, RN, FACHE, ChristianaCare’s chief virtual health officer and president of ChristianaCare’s Center for Virtual Health. “When college students are able to access medical, behavioral health and musculoskeletal services through their phone or laptop, from their dorm room or a private space on campus, they’ll be more likely to get help when they need it. This is about delivering care to students on their terms, so that they can be healthy and supported with high-quality care throughout their college experience.” Personalized virtual health solutions will be available to students at participating higher education institutions through a customized portal accessible from any computer or mobile device. Students will be able to access assessments, resources and virtual treatment via modules or telemedicine sessions with licensed providers. The offering provides students with unlimited, on-demand care from a multidisciplinary team solving for a multitude of conditions. “For college and university student health services and administrators, this partnership offers a powerful new way to provide comprehensive, affordable health solutions that benefit students,” Anderson said. “In a highly competitive recruiting environment, these solutions are easy to implement and can add tremendous value. We are excited to partner with colleges and universities to strengthen their student health programs by creating a comprehensive virtual care solution to meet their student’s health care needs.” Through a single digital portal, participating students can access internal and family medicine providers from ChristianaCare’s Center for Virtual Health. PursueCare’s Joint Commission-accredited mental health, psychiatric and medication-assisted treatment providers, and SimpleTherapy’s licensed physical therapists specializing in musculoskeletal care, acute or chronic pain management, and strength and mobility training can all be accessed through the portal. Students will also have the option of using PursueCareRx for their pharmacy needs. PursueCareRx is a competitively priced full-service pharmacy that accepts most major insurance and delivers directly to customers. “Young adults face an escalating mental health and substance use crisis,” said Nick Mercadante, founder, and CEO of PursueCare. “Colleges and universities are frequently unable to comprehensively serve the increased need, and research suggests substance use, mental health and suicide carry a significant social stigma. Our goal is to work collaboratively with campus health resources to bring a low-barrier solution students can access privately, any time, on their terms. Additionally, partnering with a world-class health system like ChristianaCare means we can help support whole-person care needs.” “Chronic musculoskeletal disorders have never been more prevalent and traditional care pathways are often ineffective and costly,” said Arpit Khemka, co-founder and CEO of SimpleTherapy. "SimpleTherapy removes barriers for students allowing them to take control of their musculoskeletal health, reducing their need for high-cost, high-risk services, such as surgery and opioids, to manage pain. This results in higher compliance rates and more successful outcomes." Customized and co-branded product The product is designed for colleges, universities and all other higher education institutions. For a flat fee, a school will be able to offer care that is customized and co-branded with school-specific content to be an extension of existing campus health services. It provides curated resources for rapid pre-assessment, on-demand chat and discreet, personalized access to care for students on or off-campus. The innovative patient portal aims to improve and strengthen how schools offer health care solutions to their student population while reducing any potential interruptions of academic and athletic pursuits by making it possible for students to conveniently access care from anywhere. In addition, the offering eliminates social stigma and other access obstacles for students who are at-risk or potentially at-risk, making it more likely that students will avail themselves of treatment options and remain in school. These services are currently licensed to operate in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Applications for licenses are underway in other states. ChristianaCare has long been a trailblazer in virtual health. Among its achievements, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ChristianaCare developed a COVID-19 virtual monitoring program that helped 37 companies in 14 states safely reopen with daily symptom monitoring, testing and connections to care for more than 10,000 employees. It’s Center for Virtual Health makes receiving care radically convenient, offering a full continuum of virtual care delivery programs. These programs include virtual primary care, specialty care programs and a Hospital Care at Home Program bringing hospital level of care to a patient’s home. The Center for Virtual Health cares for thousands of patients using state-of-the-art virtual care capabilities supporting patients in receiving care anytime, anyplace, including in the comfort of their own homes. For more information about the program, visit StudentCareSolutions.com.
Ontario drivers say they aren’t feeling as safe as they used to on highways, and they’re seeing more dangerous driving behaviours on the roads. A new study by DIG Insights on behalf of CAA South Central Ontario (CAA SCO) indicates that 98 per cent of Ontario drivers witnessed unsafe driving behaviours in the past year – up three per cent last year. This increase in unsafe driving behaviours could also explain why six per cent fewer drivers are feeling safe on our roads, specifically on highways with speed limits of 100 km/h. “Ontario police services continue to report significant amounts of speeding, stunt and aggressive driving. Although the pandemic amplified the awareness, the issue was growing well before that,” says Michael Stewart, community relations consultant, Government and Community Relations, CAA SCO. About half of respondents point to speeding as a big problem in Ontario which is no surprise considering the most common behaviour seen was speeding, followed by aggressive driving, unsafely changing lanes and distracted driving. “Traffic returning to pre-pandemic levels could be the reason why we’re seeing this increase in unsafe driving,” says Stewart. “Some drivers even admit to doing it themselves.” In total, 58 per cent admitted to engaging in dangerous driving behaviours. Forty-three per cent of Ontario drivers admitted to speeding, 17 per cent say they’ve driven distracted, eight per cent say they’ve made unsafe lane changes and six per cent have driven aggressively. Most of the time, these behaviours are witnessed on higher-speed highways, says Stewart. “It can be nerve-wracking when you come across a driver who is behaving this way,” he says. “If you do come across a speeding or aggressive driver, the best thing you can do is stay calm, focus on your driving and do not engage with the other driver. "If possible, drivers should safely pull over and call 911 if someone is driving erratically or you believe their behaviour could be an immediate danger to others.” The rise in speeding and stunt driving prompted the Ontario government to introduce tougher fines and penalties in 2021, called Moving Ontarians More Safely Act. While most drivers say they believe photo radar helps deter speeding and that photo radar should be in school zones and community safety zones, one in three Ontario drivers say they try to avoid roads that have photo radar, and 43 per cent say they accelerate after passing a photo radar camera. “Drivers need to be mindful of driving to the posted speed limit, because speeding isn’t worth the risk of a collision, fine or penalty,” says Stewart. Our research partner Dig Insights conducted this online survey of 1,503 Ontario drivers aged 18 and older from April 7 to 14, 2022, as a follow-up to research CAA conducted in 2021.
Expert Says Financial Technologies Can Help Address Climate Change
“Financial technologies offer great promise to tackle climate change and provide pathways for developing sustainable economies and lifestyles,” says Aparna Gupta, a professor of quantitative finance at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and co-director of the Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies (CRAFT), the first-ever fintech research center backed by the National Science Foundation. CRAFT brings together industry partners and policy makers to conduct research that is relevant for industry and has potential for commercialization. Dr. Gupta says that blockchain technologies combined with smart contracts and Internet of Things (IoT) devices are set to transform property and casualty insurance that is subject to increasing threats from climate change. Similarly, distributed ledger technologies can be utilized for issuing innovative climate finance securities, such as green bonds and climate derivatives, by facilitating traceable, transparent, and standardized transactions. Regulatory readiness to support blockchain-enabled green bonds and other climate finance securities issuance is underway across the globe. Climate fintech is also set to play a pivotal role in increasing renewable power generation and accelerating the transition to clean energy, according to Dr. Gupta. Digital lending platforms use crowdsourcing models to provide debt financing for residential solar energy systems. Climate-conscious consumers can make spending decisions that minimize their carbon footprint through solutions such as using a credit card that allows them to round up their purchases and use the change for planting trees. In the investment management and advisory space, there is a growing recognition of the need for environmentally sustainable investing. Responding to this need, fintech startups are offering platforms for clean energy investments and enabling investors to construct low-carbon-impact financial portfolios. “Financial technologies innovations are poised to transform almost all aspects of financial services, and in doing so, offer great opportunities to address climate change challenges,” Dr. Gupta says. In addition to her leadership in fintech, Dr. Gupta is at the helm of a team of financial and renewable energy experts developing risk management tools to incorporate renewable energy into the energy market. They will set and standardize risk factors to make it easier for this critical industry to be both productive for investors and creators and systematized for users, similar to the rating system created for the bond market. Dr. Gupta also serves on the Climate Risk Working Group of the Financial Risk Manager Advisory Committee for the Global Association of Risk Professionals tasked with identifying the important climate issues for the training of future global risk professionals. Dr. Gupta is among the many experts and researchers at Rensselaer available to speak on this topic.
Aston University academic named President of the College of Optometrists
Professor Leon Davies named incoming President of the College of Optometrists Professor Davies will serve a two-year term as President Seven new Council members have also been elected onto the board Professor Leon Davies of the School of Optometry at Aston University has been named as the College of Optometrist’s incoming President. The College of Optometrists also welcomed seven new Council members at its AGM, held during its clinical conference, Optometry Tomorrow 2022, on 20 June. Incoming President, Professor Leon Davies FCOptom, is currently a board member and previous Vice President. Leon is professor of optometry and physiological optics at Aston University and former editor-in-chief of the College’s peer reviewed CPD journal, Optometry in Practice. Academically, Leon has over 60 publications and has been awarded over £2.5m of funding for his research from UKRI, the EU, charities and a number of multinational organisations. His research is focused on presbyopia and the restoration of ocular accommodation to the ageing eye. He is also a recipient of the College of Optometrists Research Fellowship Award, and was awarded the inaugural Neil Charman Medal for research excellence in optometry, optics and vision science. Professor Leon Davies said: “I am extremely proud to be elected President of the College and honoured to represent the profession at such a crucial time, with transformational changes underway including the General Optical Council (GOC) Opticians Act review and the College’s newly published Workforce vision. “I am determined to continue the profession’s advances to ensure optometrists across the UK are at the centre of new models of eye care, and that their competences and skills are recognised and used to their full potential. “I would like to pay tribute to our outgoing President, Colin Davidson FCOptom, for his unstinting work and dedication over the last two years and offer thanks to all our departing Board and Council members for their dedicated service." The School of Optometry’s portfolio of courses range from undergraduate, to masters taught and doctoral level research, as well as a wide range of optometry continuing professional development options. All programmes are informed by professional practice and are led by an inter-disciplinary teaching team of optometrists, dispensing opticians, ophthalmologists, and vision scientists. Reflecting this highly practical ethos, students on the School’s undergraduate programmes benefit from substantial hands-on experience in the onsite Aston Eye Clinic, one of the largest at any UK university, with over 6,000 patient episodes completed every year. For more information about the School of Optometry at Aston University please visit our webpages.
Beyond the Media Pitch: How to Secure Better Coverage in Today’s Noisy Market
At our webinar earlier this month, we were joined by Wilf Dinnick, a communications and media professional with more than 25 years of global experience as a journalist working in national broadcast, digital and early-stage startups. Wilf has covered major stories for news networks including ABC News, CNN, CBC News and Al Jazeera and is a past winner of the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award. This vast experience on both sides of the camera has given him a keen understanding of what it takes to secure media coverage in today’s environment. Here are 3 key takeaways you missed: #1 The Odds of your Media Pitch Resulting in Coverage are Disappointingly Low - And the Trend is Not Good Wilf Dinnick discussed the sobering stats from a study of over 400,000 pitches conducted by Propel media that reveal that only ⅓ of emails sent to journalists are opened. But equally disappointing is the fact that only 3% of pitches result in coverage and this trend appears to be continuing. What Dinnick went on to explain is that “journalists see many pitches as an interruption as most fail to clearly demonstrate relevance to the stories they want to publish for their audience. #2 Journalists are Busier than Ever. So You Need to Connect with Them In Places they are Going for Story Ideas and Expert Sources Dinnick also shared some important data that reveals how journalists are spending their time. Where they get their story ideas and how they search for experts. This helps explain the diminishing rate of return on traditional media pitches. For instance, Twitter remains dominant as a platform used by journalists to quickly discover trending stories. So making your story ideas more discoverable with appropriate hashtags on social is an important way to promote your experts in the flow of the conversation as a story is breaking or emerging. Wilf also highlighted the importance of dialling into the daily news cycle by looking in the same areas journalists are going for their ideas. The latest research reveals that journalists find newspapers and magazines most valuable. Why? Sites such as the Washington Post, CNN, BBC, New York Times and Axios are well funded and resourced to develop the longer format, well-researched stories. They often focus on exclusive stories and break important news that is echoed through other outlets. And they set the pace of the news cycle as it echos through regional news outlets where journalists look to localize the story for their audiences. Closely monitoring these sites allows you to be in touch with the key stories and offer clear value to journalists, by offering your experts who can help explain key developments in the context of their research or localize the story for a regional audience. #3 There are Ways to Beat the Odds and Improve your Media Coverage by Following Proven Best Practices When Pitching Despite the poor odds when pitching journalists, there is hope for media relations and PR pros. Dinnick unpacked a number of important best practices that can substantially improve your odds. Drawing on research from a number of media organizations that track journalist engagement, he laid out a number of guidelines that you should be following when putting together your media pitches. Some of these included: Timing Your Pitch Journalists are more receptive to pitches early in the day between the hours of 5am and 11am. This is when the stories are breaking and work is being assigned - and journalists are looking for expert sources. Also, there is evidence that pitching earlier in the week on a Monday or Tuesday yields better results. Keeping it Brief The research Dinnick presented on the profound changes that have been happening in Newsrooms and the overload that journalists are experiencing underscores the importance of being to the point with journalists. That begins with understanding how journalists are spending their day - glued to mobile devices. “This impacts how you need to write subject lines that generate curiosity and fit into mobile devices, given the limited set of characters they can display,” said Dinnick. He also shared stressed research that shows the body copy of a pitch should be under 200 words. Mind the Links Loading a journalist up with lots of links to research, videos, and media coverage in the body copy of your pitch may seem like a good idea to help them evaluative a story idea But this is a no-no. It creates unnecessary clutter and detracts from the key messages you want them to focus on. Instead, journalists report they want as few links as possible. Wilf Dinnick recommends 1-2 links max. It’s important to note that this will present a challenge if you don’t have your content organized into comprehensive expert profiles which include important information that journalists want to see such as past media and speaking appearances, research, publications, education/credentials, affiliations etc. There was a lot to take away from this session which was jam-packed with research and best practices for media relations and PR pros. However, perhaps the most important lesson was how to ”flip” the traditional approach to pitching 180 degrees - starting the pitch process by first developing “owned” content that gets published to your website. As Wilf Dinnick stated, “you have to think like a journalist” as you approach the story ideas you want to pitch. Start with owned content and publish stories that focus on your experts which clearly show them to be relevant and credible while making their work more engaging and human through visual media helps “set the table for the journalist.” If it’s well structured and engaging, it gives journalists the added context they need to immediately understand how your pitch is relatable to their audience. What’s most powerful about this approach is that it helps media relations and PR pros avoid the “earned media trap.” Instead of being overly focused on coverage, we can think more strategically about the value we bring to the organization as storytellers to create quality “owned” content that boosts search engine (SEO) authority and PageRank as well as site engagement with visitors to boost reputation, relationships and revenues. It was clear from the many examples shared by healthcare organizations, universities and associations that this approach is where the real gains can be made. And how media relations and PR pros can show more tangible value to their organizations. Stay tuned for more on this topic of owned content and how it helps improve your media coverage as we explore this in our next post. To see the entire webinar, make sure to sign up for BrightTalk to watch the full webinar here.
UCI experts available to discuss Roe v. Wade ruling
With the Supreme Court set to rule on Roe v. Wade, UCI would like to provide experts you can reach out to for comment: • Michele Goodwin, Chancellor of Law at UCI’s School of Law, focuses on constitutional law, torts, health law, and feminist jurisprudence. An internationally renowned pioneer and pathbreaker, She has spoken often to media about reproductive rights issues and the Roe vs. Wade issue. Goodwin has helped to establish the field of health law and subspecialties in law and medicine, including biotechnology and biosciences and the law, as well as race and bioethics. Her scholarship has been cited by courts, congress, civil society organizations, and news media worldwide. If you are interested in speaking with Michele, you can reach her directly at (773) 543- 6160 or mgoodwin@law.uci.edu. • Aziza Ahmed, UCI professor of law, examines the intersection of law, politics, and science in the fields of constitutional law, criminal law, health law, and family law. Her work advances multiple scholarly conversations including those related to law and social movements, race and the law, and feminist legal theory. You can reach Aziza on her mobile at (510) 778-3031 or coordinate with our team for an interview. • Charles Anthony “Tony” Smith, UCI professor of political science and law, received his PhD from the University of California-San Diego and his JD from the University of Florida. His research is grounded in the American judiciary but encompasses work in both comparative and international frameworks using a variety of methodologies. The unifying theme of his research is how institutions, and the strategic interactions of political actors relate to the contestation over rights, law & courts, and democracy. He has published seven books and more than 30 articles on the history and politics of the Supreme Court. You can reach Tony via email casmith@uci.edu. • David Meyer, professor of sociology, political science, and planning, policy & design, can discuss the effect of the decision on political mobilization, especially the anti-abortion and abortion rights movements. He can also talk about those movements and the courts more generally. You can reach David via emaildmeyer@uci.edu.
Addiction expert on FDA plan to lower nicotine levels
Erin Calipari, assistant professor of pharmacology, is available for media commentary on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s plans for a proposed rule to require companies to lower the nicotine levels in cigarettes. Erin is lead researcher at the Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, and her research focuses on the neuroscience behind addiction. She can speak to how the brain gets addicted to substances and the many ways in which addiction takes a toll on the human body, as well as nicotine dosing. Much of Erin's research also focuses on gender differences in addiction and the need to understand female-specific factors that contribute to Substance Use Disorder.
Worth Longest research on more targeted aerosol drug delivery systems
Michael Hindle, Ph.D., a professor in the VCU Department of Pharmaceutics, and P. Worth Longest, a professor in the VCU Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, have invested years of time and millions of dollars to address challenges found in the field of medical aerosols. In particular: While smaller particles are more effective in delivering drugs into the lungs and airways, these tiny particles are often exhaled out immediately when taking a dose. Current aerosol delivery systems — think asthma inhalers — effectively deliver just 10 percent of an aerosolized dose. That’s fine for most asthma and COPD sufferers who use standard inhalers with existing medications, as these patients only need a small amount of the potent drugs to reach the lungs and have an effect. “But the medical world wants to use the lungs for delivery of other drugs, whether it’s locally to the airways or systemically to the body, and for that, you need more efficient devices,” Hindle says. To effectively use inhaled drugs for complex medical conditions requires more of the aerosol to reach the airways and to potentially target different regions of the airways — plus the devices to get them there. “Our work is about doing something different — changing that ballgame from having 90% of the drug wasted and 10% make it to the lungs, and flip it so that we get just 10% lost and 90% in the lungs,” Hindle says. “That’s always been our goal.” Taking aerosols from lab to lung Over more than a decade, the duo and their teams have created the three keys to making aerosol drug-delivery work: “developing the strategy, developing the device, and developing the formulation,” says Longest, the College of Engineering’s Louis S. and Ruth S. Harris Exceptional Scholar Professor. “When you see inhalation of aerosols fail, or a new pharmaceutical aerosol product fail, one of these areas has often been neglected. Between my lab and the Hindle lab, we have expertise in each of these different areas.” The fourth component — commercializing their inventions — is underway through a partner in Quench Medical in a deal signed in 2020 thanks to VCU Innovation Gateway. The Minnesota-based company, led by founder and CEO Bryce Beverlin II, Ph.D., has identified lung cancer, severe asthma, and cystic fibrosis as potential initial applications using VCU’s intellectual property, the licensing of which covers both the aerosols and the delivery devices. “It’s very difficult for an academic institution to develop a drug product,” says Hindle, the Peter R. Byron Distinguished Professor in Pharmaceutics. “So Bryce has moved forward with a team of manufacturers, clinical testing plans, and is talking to the Food and Drug Administration.” The VCU researchers had not previously pursued lung cancer as a possible application until Quench came along, Hindle says. “The idea that you could deliver a chemotherapy locally to the lungs is obviously very advantageous, because you don’t get the systemic side effects through the body like with traditional chemotherapy,” he says. “You’re just delivering drugs direct to that site of action for targeting the metastases in the lung.” In May, Quench presented data using the VCU technology to the Respiratory Drug Delivery conference in Florida showing that using a chemotherapeutic dry powder aerosol in rats was highly effective. It significantly reduced tumor burden but used half of the standard IV-delivered chemo dose. “This approach also aims to decrease the total drug delivered with reduced systemic drug levels in the circulation to decrease systemic toxicity,” the report read. It noted the efforts “solve a critical unmet medical need to develop new strategies to improve treatment outcomes in patients with lung cancer.” Heavy interest nationally Hindle and Longest have millions of dollars in funded projects underway, backed by the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Their work is building on the reputation of VCU’s Aerosol Research Group, founded in 1988 by emeritus professor Dr. Peter Byron (the name on Hindle’s professorship). The group’s work spans a wide variety of research areas in aerosol formulation and delivery. Hindle and Longest have worked together since 2006. While Hindle is focused on drug formulations, Longest is the engineering and computer modeling expert. His background is in biological fluid flow, and prior to joining VCU in 2004 had worked in the area of blood flow in vascular disease. But he wanted to differentiate his work, and found VCU’s reputation in medical aerosols was the place he could, in his words, “make an impact.” Through computer models, Longest and his team can understand how powders or liquids will turn into aerosol particles and the behaviors they will undertake when delivered into the body. “The lung is an area of the body where we have all these complex phenomena occurring with airflow and moving walls,’” he says. “It really takes high performance computers to understand it.” Drs. Longest and Hindle have developed a series of technology platforms that produce particles that are tiny when entering the lungs to minimize deposition losses in the mouth and throat — but grow in size as they travel down the warm, humid airways. One of the devices uses a mixer-heater to produce tiny particles, other technologies use a pharmaceutical powder or liquid containing a simple hygroscopic excipient such as sodium chloride; it is this excipient that attracts water from the lungs and makes the particles grow and deposit in the lungs with high efficiency. Eyes on infants Lately, the pair have been working on a method of aerosol drug delivery to newborns and prematurely born babies. “It’s a different set of challenges when you’re trying to deliver aerosols to infants who are born prematurely, and don’t have the ability to breathe on their own due to the lack of airway surfactant,” Hindle says. “And that’s something that, academically, we thought we were in a position to try and make a contribution to the field.” The group is working with funding from the NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a method of delivering an aerosol surfactant to infants that will hopefully remove the need to intubate these fragile babies. In addition to striking licensing deals with Quench and building relationships with additional partners, Innovation Gateway has backed the pair’s work with an initial $25,000 from VCU’s Commercialization Fund as well as a just-awarded additional $35,000. “We turned that into a series of intellectual property that has resulted in three licensed patents and a whole family of IP in relation to both formulations and devices,” Hindle says. “There’s been lots of interest in delivering drugs to the lungs, it’s just been very difficult to institute any sea change, because the pharmaceutical industry is relatively risk averse.” And so their research continues, as Quench moves forward to bring their inventions to the bedside. “What I’m doing, I don’t really consider it work — it’s an opportunity to interact with great colleagues and contribute to a mission that will be very helpful to a broad range of people,” Longest says. “I also see it as a big responsibility. We want to do this in the right way. Because people’s health and lives are at stake. We want to make sure we approach this with a large sense of responsibility, and do our best.”
Aston University signs City of Sanctuary pledge
City of Sanctuary supports groups and organisations to build a culture of welcome and hospitality Aston University has become a supporting organisation of City of Sanctuary It is committed to achieving University of Sanctuary status. Aston University has become a supporting organisation of City of Sanctuary UK to demonstrate its commitment to helping people fleeing violence and persecution. City of Sanctuary is a charity supporting a network of groups across the UK and Ireland working to build a culture of welcome and hospitality within their communities. Earlier this year, the University opened a new Centre for Migration and Forced Displacement. The centre officially launched with an event bringing together designers, artists and academics to discuss how to investigate and publicise violence against migrants. Other initiatives set up by Aston University to support refugees and asylum seekers include: a new sanctuary scholarship scheme for students who have sought refuge in the UK the student-led Enactus Society Chance for Change project, facilitating integration and employment for refugees supporting the Kozminski Foundation run by Kozminski University in Poland, which provides support for victims of the war in Ukraine students in the University’s Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship undertaking PhD research into refugee entrepreneurship funding for an emergency training package for Ukrainian interpreters, supporting local organisations in contact with Ukrainian refugees. Dr Angela Jeffery, director of regional strategy at Aston University, said: “Aston University recently launched its Civic University Agreement, outlining our commitment as an anchor institution to improving the economic, social, environmental and cultural life of our local communities. “Becoming a supporting organisation of the City of Sanctuary is one of many steps the University is taking to support our region and society. We endorse the City of Sanctuary Charter and agree to act in accordance with its values. We are committed to achieving University of Sanctuary status by welcoming asylum seekers and refugees into the university community and fostering a culture of welcome and inclusion for all.” City of Sanctuary chair, David Brown, said: “As a diverse and vibrant university in a diverse and vibrant city, Aston University is in a really strong position to welcome and support asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants as they seek to build new lives in the UK, and to contribute their skills and energy to the University community, to Birmingham and to the Midlands. “With colleagues in the City of Sanctuary movement, I warmly welcome Aston University’s commitment to become a University of Sanctuary.”