Profile

I’m half Moroccan, half Maltese, born in London and now living in Croydon, Surrey…a convient location for me to commute into Victoria and Westminster where I work. I moved here in September after finishing my PhD in Cambridge. I did my undergraduate in Plymouth where I was a 10minute walk from the sea…I miss that very much! I have no pets but really want a cat! My favourite food is Italian, especially Pizza with all the salamis, chillis and vegetables. When I was 13yrs old I used to be able to quote the Lord of the Rings movies and spoke Arabic. I love travelling and have studied many languages in my spare time, including French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Japanese. My current challenge is learning German, so that I can speak to my boyfriend’s parents. I just recently got back from Hong Kong and my greatest travelling achievement was sailing around the Canary Islands on a 72 foot yatch at aged 18yrs. As well as loving to travel, I also love current affairs. Whether it’s the USA Presidential Elections, Brexit, the cross-border attempts to expand the Panda population, a scientific discovery or a natual disaster – I love reading and learning about what goes on around the world.

This is our building in Victoria – Southside, 105 Victoria Street

It’s right next to Westminster Cathedral – very pretty to look at!

This is the reception area, where my lovely colleagues welcome all the people who we have meetings with from Government and pharmaceutical companies.

This is our Chief Executive – Mike Thompson. Mike joined the ABPI from GlaxoSmithKline where he was most recently senior vice president for global commercial strategy and platforms. A graduate of The Queen’s College, Oxford, Mike has worked across multiple sectors including food, drinks, toiletries and Government agencies.

This is a photo of me having pledged in 2018 to help colleagues fight anti-microbial resistance through becoming an Antibiotic Guardian. Anti-microbial resistance is one of many areas of medical science that we help our members, the pharmaceutical companies, and Government develop new ways of working. We want to stop the growing problem of anti-microbial resistance and develop new treatments.

I work in the Research, Medical and Innovation team at the ABPI. We are a group of 10 people who work to understand the new research being done by members and look out for new opportunities for innovation. My typical day involves three main areas:

1. Data Analysis and Policy: Whether it’s anti-microbial resistance, innovative clinical trials, innovative therapies or education and skills, we as a team work on many scientific areas and stages in the development of new treatments. We often do data analysis which is used in publications that are then shared in the industry and with Government and the NHS. Through this work we hope to help scientists to develop new treatments.

2. Preparing for Government Meetings: Across the ABPI, we work with Government in one of two ways. Either we prepare a report for MPs to read, which informs them about an issue, for example supply of medicines during Brexit, or we meet and work with them directly to develop new ways the NHS can help patients, for example how to treat new patients with new treatments.

3. Meeting with Members: The ABPI is a membership organisation. Pharmaceutical companies pay the ABPI to be a member. We represent over 65 companies. Some of them are small companies with a particular expertise and some of them are big companies that work around the world on many disease areas. To make sure we can represent them properly when we meet Government and we understand the cool science they’re doing, we meet with them regularly. We have many membership groups we meet with, with expertise in non-clinical research, clinical research, cancer research and skills/education.