Leading pharma company Lilly UK has appointed the relatively young Thomas Thorp (32) as its Senior Director of Corporate Affairs.

Thorp will lead the company’s UK corporate affairs activity, including market access, government affairs and regulatory outcomes, and oversee the field-based payer team.

After working at GSK and Novartis in government affairs roles based in Brussels, Thorp joined Lilly in 2007 as European Government Affairs Manager in the same location.

Since 2008 he has led the company’s government and external affairs in the UK, and recently completed a field-based assignment as a regional access manager, focusing on the Lilly Diabetes business.

In response to the Independent Pharmacy Federation’s (IPF) survey, which noted Eli Lilly amongst the top three pharma companies to present the greatest difficulties in obtaining medicine supplies, a spokesperson for Lilly UK issued the below statement:

“Lilly is committed to ensuring that UK patients have access to our medicines and consequently distributes more than sufficient medicine to meet UK demand, through our direct to pharmacy distribution system.”

This is administered by two Logistic Services Providers (LSPs) and backed up by an emergency service; whereby a pharmacy can phone Lilly direct on our free phone number 0800 012 1178 and we will arrange a delivery at the next available opportunity – typically within 24 hours.”

Lilly UK is confident that our direct to pharmacy procedures provide a good and robust service to patients and pharmacists and adheres to the joint guidance: “Best Practice for Ensuring the Efficient Supply and Distribution of Medicines to Patients” and “Trading Medicines for Human Use: Shortages and Supply Chain Obligations”, issued by the Department of Health (DH).”

While we continually review and update our own procedures to ensure that every UK patient has access to our medicines, the difficulties experienced in providing consistent supply of medicines have been acknowledged by the DH as being caused - at least in part – by product diversion.”

For Lilly, one of our specific concerns is around the diversion of olanzapine (Zyprexa). This is likely to be a significant contributing factor in the IPF’s findings due to the impact these shortages have.”

We encourage the IPF to lend its support to driving adoption of the recent Department of Health guidelines and as well as sharing the results and methodology of its survey with us directly so that we may better understand their findings.”

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An innovative new project aiming to help the treatment of the 12,800 people with diabetes in Nottingham has been launched.

Entitled NIMROD (Nottingham NHS and Industry Maximising Resources and Outcomes in Diabetes), the project aims to improve care for people with diabetes, reduce the number of unplanned admissions to hospitals and build a world-class diabetes service.

It is a joint venture between NHS Nottingham City (PCT), Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Diabetes UK and pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca, Lilly UK, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, MSD, sanofi aventis and Pfizer.

Jan Balmer, NIMROD Project Manager, said: “NIMROD is jointly and equally funded by NHS Nottingham City (PCT) and the seven pharmaceutical companies who are working with us. We all have a shared interest in improving people’s health and reducing their need for hospital treatment and by pooling our skills, experiences and resources we can benefit patients.”

The project team will compare the treatment of people admitted to Nottingham University Hospital Trust sites with published local care pathways reflecting the National Service Framework for diabetes and NICE clinical guidelines.

Barbara Young, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK (pictured), said: “Diabetes UK is delighted to be involved in this exciting and innovative project which will ultimately reduce unacceptable variations in standards of diabetes care and improve outcomes for people with diabetes in Nottingham. We look forward to working closely with all of the organisations and stakeholders involved in the project to build a world-class diabetes service in the city.”

NIMROD also aims to empower and support people with diabetes to manage their condition more effectively at home and ultimately reduce the need for emergency admissions to hospital.