Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal helped mark the 25th anniversary of the world-leading Liverpool Drug Interactions digital tool.
Attending this year’s HIV Drug Therapy conference in Glasgow, The Princess Royal was there to help celebrate the long-term work and achievements of the University of Liverpool’s Professors David Back, and Saye Khoo.
During Her Royal Highness’s visit she presented David and Saye with a trophy and Professor Chloe Orkin, world-leading HIV researcher from Queen Mary University of London, paid tribute to their work to develop the online prescribing tool used by health professionals globally.
The Liverpool Drug Interactions Programme provides online prescribing tools for identifying and managing drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in patients with HIV, hepatitis and COVID-19. A drug-drug interaction describes a situation in which one drug affects the activity of another. Drugs may negatively interact with each other to cause adverse reactions and toxicity or decrease the effectiveness of a drug – both potentially causing patient harm and treatment failure.
The digital resources are managed by a pharmacology team based in Liverpool and gives healthcare professionals access to latest insight into drug interactions, allowing them to provide accurate advice to patients prescribed multiple medications. The websites handle almost 1m interaction queries from more than 130k unique visitors a month across 220 countries and territories. Significantly, this world-leading example of British science was recognised in 2017 by the Queens Anniversary Award for Medicine and Health.
Professor Khoo and Back’s work began in the 1990s with extensive research, highlighting the prevalence of DDIs affecting a quarter of individuals undergoing HIV treatment. Since then, the work has been expanded to address the complex landscape of DDIs in patients with hepatitis and COVID-19.
The Princess Royal was there ahead of Professor Saye Khoo’s delivery of his Liverpool Drug Interaction Symposium, a highlight of the conference programme.
Professor Saye Khoo, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, University of Liverpool said: “Whatever drug you take, you should be confident it will be both safe, and effective. This especially includes people with multiple medical conditions, who are receiving many different medicines where drug-drug interactions can be complex, and any resulting harms easily missed. David and I are so proud to have led such an incredibly talented and passionate team that, 25 years on, continues to help people all over the world.
“We started in 1999 with a printed chart stuck on the walls of as many clinics as we could get into. In no time this expanded to unmanageable proportions. Our digital transformation has now made this vital resource readily and freely accessible to any prescriber anywhere in the world, through their phone or computer.
“I was honoured for our work to be recognised by The Princess Royal and give her the opportunity to hear more about our work and the impact it has had on people’s lives.”
Her Royal Highness met with members of The Liverpool Drug Interactions Programme team on their exhibition booth speaking to the team about HIV in the UK and in Africa, particularly focussing on HIV in children.
Also, during the visit, The Princess Royal was also introduced to and heard more about the newly established Centre for Experimental Therapeutics (TherEx) at the University of Liverpool, of which the Drug Interactions Programme is a cornerstone. It will improve health and wellbeing by optimising the use of existing drugs and accelerating the development of new treatments and continue its understanding of DDIs.