Co-inventor of anti-TNF therapy honoured with lifetime achievement award
Professor Marc Feldmann, director of the Arthritis Research Campaign Kennedy Institute for Rheumatology at Imperial College, London, has been awarded a prestigious lifetime achievement award at the European Inventor of the Year awards.
Professor Feldmann received the honour for his research throughout the 1980s and 1990s which led to the discovery of anti-TNF therapy which has since revolutionised the treatment of inflammatory arthritis.
Together with colleague and former Kennedy director Professor Sir Ravinder Maini, Professor Feldmann found that the key to preventing the auto-immune system attacking itself were molecules responsible for cell communication called cytokines. They found that all cytokines could be stopped by blocking one, tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha. In 1992, the first of a series of trials were run involving patients from the Kennedy which led to a series of international multi-centre trials and the licensing of anti-TNF therapy in the UK in 2000.
Professor Feldmann said it was a wonderful feeling to have one’s lifetime work and original inventions acknowledged in such a major way. “The work on which this award was based was generously funded over a very long time by the Arthritis Research Campaign,” he said.
The European Inventor of the Year awards have been presented jointly by the European Patent Office and the EU Commission since 2006.
