FROM THE BENCH TO THE BEDSIDE

In an age of rapid technological development in medical science, how does a new treatment come about? What is the process by which it goes from the mind of the scientist at the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside? In this episode Eliot meets someone who has travelled that path.

Simon Westbrook is the founder of Levicept a company that has developed a breakthrough medicine for osteoarthritis. It’s a disease that affects about one in six people in the UK, and hundreds of millions around the world. There has not been a breakthrough in its treatment for almost fifty years. So how did Simon come up with his drug and what has been his path to success?