Building skills in drug discovery and clinical trial design

"The UK needs more people with the specialist skills and knowledge required for the design and conduct of early phase clinical trials," says Ian Wilkinson, Professor of Therapeutics, University of Cambridge.

The University and AstraZeneca have created a course to address this need for specialist training in clinical pharmacology and pharmaceutical medicine.

The course also highlights the importance of collaboration in advancing science and promoting innovation in drug discovery and development.

Clinical pharmacology training course

participants over first two years from

organisations

Experts from academia, clinical practice and the pharmaceutical industry cover a wide range of topics from drug discovery through to regulatory aspects.

The course focuses particularly on what is involved in taking a new compound into the clinic, how to navigate dosing in early clinical studies and how to monitor emerging medicine safety profile data and efficacy signals.

It has been designed so that it can adapt as new trends emerge, such as advances in artificial intelligence and its impact on drug discovery and clinical trial design.

"Ultimately, this is about developing cutting-edge science and advancing our speciality for the benefit of patients.

However, it also creates an opportunity to explore career pathways and inspire clinical pharmacologists, drug development scientists and pharmaceutical physicians of the future."
Phil Ambery, Global Clinical Head, Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolism (CVRM), R&D, AstraZeneca

"The Clinical Pharmacology Training Course was conceived to provide comprehensive coverage of the discipline from preclinical research through to execution of first-in-human studies.

It addresses a key gap in the translation of basic science into new therapies by expanding the number of people able to conduct early phase trials."

Ian Wilkinson, Professor of Therapeutics, University of Cambridge

The Clinical Pharmacology training course runs from October to May each year.

Get in touch if you would like more information or are interested in enrolling on the course.

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_{AstraZeneca scientists in a lab: credit: AstraZeneca}

Reference
_{British Pharmacological Society joint report with ABPI on 'Ensuring UK leadership in experimental medicine' (2015).}

_{Veeva ID: GB-68351
Date of preparation: July 2025}