After a completely virtual event in 2020, the Genesis conference was back in a regenerated format to celebrate its 21st anniversary. A new prestigious venue – 1 Wimpole Street – hosted over 250 delegates to hear the top-level keynote programme and reconnect over much missed in-person networking breaks. In addition, building on the benefits of the virtual world, another 250+ delegates connected on the event app for digital Innovation Workshops, access to on-demand content and virtual partnering.
Genesis is the highly anticipated annual conference that brings together the One Nucleus network of key industry leaders and innovators to reflect on the past year’s most significant trends. With 2021 being another exciting year for the life science sector, this annual review created a stimulating forum for discussion during the sessions as well as networking opportunities during the breaks.
The day kicked off with great anticipation for the popular annual round-up session ‘Winners and Losers’ of the year, presented by Mike Ward, Global Head of Life Science and Healthcare Thought Leadership at Clarivate. A session highlighting those ‘who made science look cool’ in the context of a global pandemic and the ‘villains’ of biotech now answering to justice. Overall, it was a great reflection on the privilege it is to work for this industry now ever more than before.
With the Covid-19 pandemic still dominating the headlines, the day continued with discussions reflecting on what has changed for our sector: the lessons learnt to accelerate the development of vaccines and therapeutics but also the enormous influx of cash we have seen and the impact on investment and deals in 2021 and beyond. It brought a lot of optimism on how resources and interest gained by our industry could have a significant impact on how to reduce the time it takes to bring innovation to patients.
Patients – that we were reminded we all are – were also very rightly at the centre of discussions with a panel of clinicians, data experts and pharma representatives discussing the ‘hows’ of being more efficient with our patient-centricity approaches. If the objective is very consensual, its delivery still comes with many challenges around data, consent, an early engagement that were addressed brilliantly by the panellists. It also linked more specifically to the adoption of genomics to improve healthcare delivery, a topic that the UK leads on, while still facing adoption challenges that the panel of genomics experts debated.
The day concluded with a panel comprising five innovators with diverse backgrounds now working in life sciences to discuss ‘Innovation Drivers.’ The goal was to share their approach to innovation, perception of the life science sector and how this could be matched to deliver better outcomes for science and patients. The discussion portrayed a refreshing picture of our sector, perceived as very collaborative, intellectually challenging but with a stimulating human-related end goal. Many insights from the automotive, engineering, retail and performing arts sectors were shared on how to better fuel this ‘Life Science Innovation Engine’ but a common thread among panellists was the importance of remaining ‘patient obsessed’ at all levels.
As the day concluded, delegates were reminded of all the additional opportunities available to them online, including a series of on-demand panel discussions covering the various solutions brought by biotechnologies to global sustainability challenges. The Innovation Workshops, led by One Nucleus network experts providing in-depth discussions on key business and technology topics were also available on-demand, post-Genesis.
Outcomes from the various session are already influencing the agenda for Genesis 2022 that will take place, this time, on Wednesday 7 December. Please visit the Genesis website to keep up to date with progress. And visit the One Nucleus YouTube channel if you would like to watch any of the Genesis 2021 sessions.
