Holyrood

IQVIA - deeply embedded in Scottish Life Sciences

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In the last year, IQVIA has conducted over 500 clinical trials on behalf of pharmaceut­ical and biotech companies based all over the world, including several COVID vaccine and treatment studies - involving over 10,000 NHS patients. We have boosted patient care and made a £1.2bn contributi­on to the UK economy1.

As Scotland’s largest life science sector employer, IQVIA is proud to be supporting over 900 active clinical trials from their Q2 Solutions Laboratory in Livingston, an integral part of Scotland’s life sciences ecosystem. These trials cover treatments being developed for the entire spectrum of disease, including life changing treatments in cancer, neurodegen­erative disorders, and rare diseases to bring ground-breaking innovation­s to patients in Scotland and across the globe. Our state-of-the-art Alba Campus laboratory analyses around 5 million samples each year, received from hospitals and clinics across UK, Europe and Northern Africa. With a focus on combining state of the art technology, human data science and optimised clinical research design, we support the improvemen­t of healthcare delivery and patient outcomes across Scotland and beyond. A critical part of IQVIA’S business, our Livingston Q2 Solutions team recognise that every single sample we touch, has been given to us by a patient and, as such, we treat every one of our samples as if a life depends upon it. Our aim: to improve patient lives through clinical research and translate the hopes of our patients into therapeuti­c reality. As the healthcare landscape continues to focus on precision medicine, we have continued to enhance our understand­ing of genomics and how individual genetic make-up, coupled with environmen­t and lifestyle, impacts the way in which patients are treated for specific diseases. Our recent multi-million-pound expansion has significan­tly increased our capabiliti­es in genomics research and will

allow us to continue, at scale, to deliver life changing, cell, gene and RNA therapies to our patients across the globe.

“IQVIA’S combined services are already improving patient experience­s across Scotland and can further improve patient lives by optimising Healthcare delivery, enhancing our Healthcare Research infrastruc­ture and driving a Scotland-first agenda for Life Sciences sector growth.” - Elaine Lowey, General Manager, Central Laboratori­es EMEA, Q2 Solutions, IQVIA

Our Scottish Footprint - delivering for patients

IQVIA now employs over 1,200 people in Scotland; a flexible combinatio­n of onsite employees, remote or hybrid working model employees and a number of field-based employees who support our NHS researcher­s within Scotland’s hospitals. Working with NHS Scotland for 40 years, IQVIA will continue to work to ensure better delivery of clinical research in Scotland. Our Q2 Solutions Livingston laboratory is continuous­ly improving capabiliti­es in response to the changing needs and technologi­es within our industry. Most notably, cell, gene, and RNA therapies continue to drive many of the innovation­s in healthcare. Our expanded capacity allows us to support these within Scotland and enable these innovation­s to be translated from high level and investment research, into the foundation­s of faster developmen­t and deployment of these therapies to benefit patients. In addition, our collaborat­ion with Government, global scientific counterpar­ts, and leading Scottish academics, gives us the opportunit­y to deliver genomicsev­idence based strategies for patients including individual­ised medication management and prescribin­g. In doing so, we can improve patient outcomes, reduce hospitalis­ations and produce a significan­t reduction in drug costs to the NHS and healthcare providers across the world.

Economic benefit - the difference we make

Alignment with policy is an ongoing priority for IQVIA within Scotland and the UK and extends beyond our corporate objectives – our Scottish team is actively involved across the Scottish Government’s Health, Trade and Business Ministers, Skills Developmen­t Scotland, and Scottish Life Science Industry Leadership Group, helping to devise and deliver clear strategies which support employment and the whole of life science and healthcare in Scotland. Following the completion of the recent expansion, supported by a Scottish Enterprise R&D grant and further to the recent visit from the Department of Internatio­nal Trade (DIT), the team were delighted to host Lord Grimstone who was given a first-hand insight from the team on the diverse and significan­t contributi­on that IQVIA make to clinical trial patients in Scotland and beyond. That investment, and the economic gain in building the Scottish life sciences sector was highlighte­d as a major opportunit­y by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel, Minister of State for Investment, during his visit to Scotland in May. The Minister visited the Alba Campus facility to meet with the senior leadership team and briefly tour the facility. After the visit he said “Highvalue, high-impact investment provides a significan­t contributi­on to business turnover, job creation and levelling up across the UK..”, and our team shared with him the scale of opportunit­y that is open to life Sciences in Scotland. IQVIA continues to operate a fully sustainabl­e growth model and will continue to strive towards sustainabl­e production, carbon neutrality and minimised environmen­t impact from our operations. Our Livingston facility (operating its electricit­y supply from 100% renewable sources), is actively working towards obtaining “My Green Lab” certificat­ion which, alongside our sustainabi­lity strategy, ensures we take responsibl­e ownership of the protection of our local, national, and global environmen­t for future generation­s.

Attracting Internatio­nal Research and Innovation to Scotland

Through continued investment planned for the Livingston laboratory, IQVIA will build commitment­s from global pharma and biotech companies by providing cutting-edge research capabiliti­es within Scotland as part of the national innovation support infrastruc­ture, a key aim of the Scottish Life Sciences strategy. Through collaborat­ion with the Scottish Government and NHS, IQVIA aim to support Scotland in becoming a worldleadi­ng destinatio­n for clinical research, providing fast and free access for Scottish patients to healthcare innovation­s, and further reducing the drug cost burden to the NHS. Working with the Scottish Government and Government advisory bodies, IQVIA are committed to contributi­ng high value, industry expertise to government policy developmen­t. IQVIA have laid the strategic foundation for further expansion of genomic, immunologi­cal and specific neurodegen­erative biomarker capabiliti­es in Scotland to support precision medicine capabiliti­es in Scotland, translatin­g this into further high-quality local employment, across multiple discipline­s from Lab based roles, to Project Management and corporate support roles, leading to transforma­tive outcomes for patients in Scotland and beyond. Future plans for IQVIA include working closely with the Scottish Government to support the implementa­tion of its Genomics Strategy and being part of the “triple helix” encompassi­ng academia, clinical and patient communitie­s, as well as healthcare industry.

1. https://www.iqvia.com/-/media/iqvia/pdfs/uk/ fact-sheets/unlocking-health-data-to-transformu­k-patient-care-iqvia.pdf

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