Dr Ann Kirby (Senior Lecturer, PhD Supervisor), Claire Willmington (Doctoral Candidate), Dr Aileen Murphy (Senior Lecturer, PhD Supervisor) 16th October 2023
Cork University Business School, UCC, participates in European Project Searching for New Therapies against blindness using RNA
CUBS are delighted to welcome Claire Willmington, a candidate on RETORNA, a Doctoral Networks Project funded under the Marie Skodowska-Curie Actions. Overall the project “Targeting RNA as an approach for treating retinal diseases” (RETORNA) aims to discover new therapies against blindness using RNA as a target molecule. UCC is one of eight European partners on the project, who received almost €2.6 million within the Horizon Europe programme.
The UCC doctoral candidate, Claire Willmington, under the supervision of CUBS staff Dr Aileen Murphy, Dr Ann Kirby and Prof Matthias Beck, will examine the health economic impacts of RNA in treating retinal diseases.
Aging populations and increased prevalence of eye conditions such as, glaucoma, cataracts, diabetic eye disease, age-related macular degeneration, are contributing to the rise in blindness globally. It’s anticipated that global blindness will triple by 2050, presenting increased demands for health systems.
Advances in the field of RNA nanotechnology are becoming a clinical reality, offering real benefits for patients. Such advances however are expensive and economic evaluations will be warranted to ensure they are value for money. Dr Murphy, lead Health Economist on the project, is an expert in the area of such economic evaluations which examine if new technologies are cost effective, i.e. are the additional benefits patients receive worth the additional costs.
Traditionally, the adoption of economic evaluations in ophthalmology has been slower than other clinical areas. In this project Ms Willmington, under the supervision of Drs Murphy and Kirby and Prof Beck, will investigate the economic impacts of RNA therapies for retinal disease at the beginning of their life cycle. According to Dr Murphy, “early and iterative economic evaluations are important to inform timely decisions on service provision and research and development prioritisation, thereby avoiding delays in patient access”.
Overall the multidisciplinary project facilitates collaboration between research disciplines which according to Prof Javier Sancho, project coordinator based in Catholic University of Valencia, “allows you reach levels that you would hardly reach working alone … quality of the research increases … make the work more productive and have much more impact”.
In addition to supervising Ms Willmington, over the course of the three year project, Dr Murphy and colleagues will facilitate health economic internships for the other nine doctoral candidates on the programme and host a summer school.
Ms Willmington will also undertake an internship with Salutem Insights, Irish health economics and market access consultants. According to Sandra Redmond, Managing Director at Salutem Insights, “in an ever changing global healthcare environment, market access is the single most important determinant of commercial success”. Through the placement Ms Willmington will gain experience in navigating the market access environment, including regulation, pricing and budget management, developing commercial and strategic awareness.
Overall there are ten sub-projects on the RETORNA project, representing different perspectives, from biology to economics. The training provided to the doctoral students will equip them to work in academia and industry and the research outputs will facilitate the provision of valuable and accessible health care to patients with retinal disease.
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