Fellow

Malcolm Skingle, who has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 50 years, recently retired as Director, Academic Liaison, within leading pharmaceutical company GSK. In a role which he held for the last three decades, he managed staff both in the UK and USA, and the focus of much of his work was on initiating and expediting collaboration agreements around the world on behalf of GSK. Malcolm is a long-standing supporter of, and adviser to, the Academy of Medical Sciences, with a special interest in careers within biomedical and health research and the contribution of this to the UK’s global competitiveness and reputation. There is close alignment of his work with the Academy’s commitments to influencing government and industry to support research and innovation with sustained investment, while also enabling and supporting productive collaboration between NHS, academia and industry and working closely with patients and the public. Malcolm joined GSK (then Glaxo) straight from school, as a lab technician, going on to study while within the organisation for an HNC, then a BSc in pharmacology and biochemistry at the University of East London and a PhD in neuropharmacology, affiliated to the University of London. Malcolm then set up and ran his own research group at Glaxo, and was involved in the discovery and development of many ground-breaking products, including medication to treat gastric acid as well as beta blockers for high blood pressure, inhaled steroids for asthma and other lung diseases and treatments for migraine and for nausea. After many innovative years of bench science, Malcolm took on the role of Technology Transfer Manager at GSK, responsible for assessing and licensing new technologies into the company, working closely with several internal departments (legal, finance, intellectual property) and liaising with scientists to ensure that the acquired technology was fit for purpose. He then moved to focus on work at the interface of academia and industry, where his expertise now lies. As he explains “In the past, the interactions between universities, medical schools, funders and pharma were clunky, and the challenge has been to vastly improve these vital relationships.” The author of over 60 publications, Malcolm has written widely about how best to foster such interactions, and he also promotes this through his extensive work with PraxisAuril, the UK's professional association for knowledge exchange practitioners and its USA counterpart organisation, the University Industry Development Partnership (UIDP). These organisations sit at the heart of his interests: working in universities, private and public sector research organisations to manage IP commercialisation, collaboration, promoting engagement between researchers and external organisations to deliver social and economic impact through innovation and enhanced productivity and skills. Indeed, Malcolm credits PraxisAuril with being key in connecting the UK industrial research base with academia and he has served as a board member, speaker and blog author. One of the recommendations in the Lambert Review (December 2003) of Business-University collaboration was to draft a series of agreements to facilitate academic/industry collaborations. Malcolm skilfully chaired the committee, drawn from various industry sectors and academia to negotiate and create a series of boilerplate agreements which are still used today; this has saved many hours of potential negotiation. Summarising how such values see GSK and universities working so well together, Malcolm says “The principles I recommend remain constant: diversity, consistency, transparency and good science. It’s the same as in sport. You play fair. You do what is right as a collaborator and people want to work with you.” Indeed, he credits much of his drive and approach to an unusual background: playing semi-professional football in the Isthmian League, first for Bishop Stortford, his home town, and later for Borehamwood, where he played against Swindon Town in the FA Cup. As he says of his experience on the pitch “That has helped me to apply myself 100% to everything I do.” Malcolm has served on many boards, including those of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for England Research Excellence Framework Main Panel A and as an industry trustee for the British Pharmacological Society, where he remains an Honorary Fellow. He currently sits on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Infrastructure Advisory Committee which evaluates large science infrastructure in the UK and our annual subscriptions to international projects such as the Large Hadron Collider and Square Kilometre Array telescope. He also chairs several groups including the Science Industry Partnership for apprenticeships, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry group working on academic liaison and the industrial advisory board of the Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron. This joint venture between UKRI and Wellcome is a key part of the national science infrastructure. It is used by over 14,000 researchers across life and physical sciences, from both academia and industry, free at the point of use, for study within many diverse areas, from fossils to jet engines, viruses to vaccines. Malcolm was awarded a CBE in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to the pharmaceutical industry and also holds an honorary professorship at the University of Birmingham, honorary DSc awards from the universities of Dundee, Hertfordshire and Brunel and is an elected Fellow of the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. On being elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2023, Malcolm said “I am proud and humbled to receive an honorary fellowship from the Academy of Medical Sciences, an organisation I have long admired for its impactful work, including influential topical reports, excellent networking events and the innovative FLIER programme. Throughout my career I have sought to foster collaboration between industry and academia to advance medical research and improve patient outcomes. I look forward to furthering this important mission as part of the Academy’s distinguished fellowship.” We much look forward to forging invaluable new links with Malcolm in the years ahead.