A leading UK health policy expert, Ed has advised at the highest level within government, NHS bodies and healthcare providers. He was the longest ever serving Special Adviser at the UK Department of Health & Social Care, serving as policy adviser to the Health Secretary from 2013-2018. In this time Ed worked under two Prime Ministers and completed Yale University’s System Leadership Programme for NHS leaders.
Ed then moved to the UK Foreign Office as Chief of Staff to the then Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP, before going back to the private sector and consultancy in 2019. In 2020 he returned as a senior adviser to NHS England & Improvement on its early response to COVID-19, including the NHS’s nationally commissioned support from independent healthcare providers. Ed now advises a global investment bank, major private equity investors, international medical device companies and health technology suppliers on market access, regulation and commercial strategy.

James is one of the UK's leading policy advisors. He has operated at the highest levels of government, including as a Minister at the Department for Health & Social Care, as Director of the No.10 Policy Unit, and as an advisor to DHSC Ministers during the COVID-19 crisis. James is driven by the twin passions of bringing life-changing health innovations to patients and growing the UK’s life science & healthtech industries. As Minister his responsibilities included implementing the Life Science Industrial Strategy, delivering a new pricing scheme with the pharmaceutical industry, chairing the National Genomics Board, and driving the digital transformation of the NHS. He was also responsible for preparing the health and social care sectors for Brexit and helping to design the post-Brexit regulatory regime. James provides senior counsel to multinationals, SMEs, investors, universities and charities across health and life sciences, with a particular focus on technology, digital and data. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation where he chairs the Data, Health & Wealth programme. Outside of health, James chairs the Repairing our Social Fabric programme at the think tank Onward, is a Member of the House of Lords, and has a keen interest in education reform.

Blake is a globally connected commercial expert in pharma and health technologies. Until November 2022, Blake was the NHS’s chief negotiator with the pharmaceutical industry and was Interim Chief Commercial Officer and member of NHS England’s Executive Committee.

Blake led successful negotiations securing high-profile commercial deals for cutting-edge new medicines including three gene therapies, multiple oncology products and personalised medicines. He created and implemented the Commercial Framework for New Medicines and Innovative Medicines Fund to stand alongside the Cancer Drugs Fund. He delivered first of a kind innovative procurements for NHS patients such as Hepatitis C, AMR subscription model, GRAIL agreement and Inclisiran population health programmes in the UK.

Prior to joining the NHS, Blake held senior roles in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years at Sanofi. Blake was Head of Global Commercial Operations for Sanofi’s generics company, and managed Sanofi branded innovative businesses across multiple European countries. Blake’s passion is that commercial activity is fundamental to support patient access to innovative and the most clinically effective healthcare treatments/solutions.

Claudia has over a decade of experience helping healthcare and life science organisations to navigate the NHS. A specialist in strategic planning and market access, Claudia has been involved in numerous companies’ commercial and external engagement activities. With her combined knowledge of the healthcare policy environment and the challenging pathways to product reimbursement for medicines and digital technology, Claudia furnishes organisations with useful expert insight. Claudia is also responsible for the overall management of the Newmarket team, leading on ensuring all staff are trained and supported to deliver a consistently high standard of performance across all our work. Outside of work, Claudia can be found exploring the countryside with her family.

Paul has deep expertise in health and life sciences policy, from early-stage research and development, through to market access, adoption and spread of innovation. He was previously the lead for life sciences policy at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and has 10 years experience working within UK government.

At TBI, he was instrumental in setting out the institute's vision for the future of UK health and care, including the role technology can play in reforming the NHS and personalising care. He has also co-authored the UK's vision for the future of clinical research delivery and worked with a range of governments to embed and grow their domestic life science sectors.

Paul is a regular speaker at health and life sciences conferences, was a member of the NICE Methods Review working group and has advised senior political figures on the future of UK health and life sciences.

Eleonora has deep expertise in digital health particularly on cutting edge technologies, like artificial intelligence, and regulation. She was previously Head of Collaborations at the NHS AI Lab and was instrumental in leading the G7’s working group on AI in healthcare. During her time at the Lab, she was responsible for the successful publication of two key reports on the evaluation of AI-enabled medical devices, and ways to develop and deploy AI-enabled medical devices across jurisdictions. She was also one of the authors the Lab’s open source AI Dictionary.

Prior to joining the NHS Transformation Directorate, she was Director of Research at Reform think tank, where she co-authored papers on AI in the NHS, the value of healthcare data, commercial models in healthcare and the regulation of data-driven technologies.

She is a member of the British Standards Institution and has sat on a few standards committees, most currently on the safe and ethical use of artificial intelligence in healthcare committee (BS30440). She is also part of One HealthTech, a grassroots community which seeks to promote diversity in healthtech.

David joined Newmarket Strategy in March 2023 after more than a decade of senior roles within the NHS. Having worked across both acute and commissioning organisations, David has extensive knowledge of healthcare policy, contracting and funding arrangements. He has in-depth understanding of the development and execution of strategic plans, and has significant experience in developing partnerships between the NHS and the independent sector. David is a visiting lecturer at King’s College London, and enjoys working with others who share a passion for transforming and improving healthcare services.

Cristina is a Manager at Newmarket Strategy and has a background in market access for medicines and digital devices. She has provided support to clients in a number of market access and health policy projects, and is knowledgeable of the changing reimbursement and access landscape in the UK. She has a particular interest in digital, and is very familiar with the cultural, regulatory and policy barriers to innovation uptake in the NHS. She was the research lead and co-author of the Mental Health Tech Landscape Review and the Learning Disability Tech Landscape Review which made recommendations to policymakers on fostering digital innovation. She also participated in public roundtables to discuss the report findings.

Nooran joins Newmarket Strategy with experience in Consulting supporting pharmaceutical clients in Commercial Strategy across different therapeutic areas. During this time, Nooran helped to build launch plans in Rare Oncology and Infectious Diseases, led on competitive intelligence and supported with message testing exercises within Neurology. With experience as a Project Manager at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Nooran is passionate about improving outcomes for patients and driving innovations to address unmet needs. In her spare time Nooran can be found practicing Yoga and attempting to meditate.

Edward graduated with a BA in Sociology from the University of Newcastle, before going on to complete an MSc in Global Health Policy at the London School of Economics. Here he acquired a broad understanding of health policy mechanisms and economic structures, whilst also developing his skills in research and analysis. Alongside this, his academic interests have driven him to complete a Business Analytics course with Harvard Business School and an Epidemiology course with Imperial College London. Outside of work, Edward enjoys travelling with friends and exploring national parks.

Iain has held senior roles driving digital health in government, the NHS and private sector over 20 years, most recently as Digital Transformation Director at NHSx until the end of 2021.

Having joined the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in 2017, Iain led the development of the digital strategy for DHSC and NHS England, before joining the leadership team of the newly formed NHSx. Iain worked on the development of the NHS App, the transformation of national screening, cancer and mental health services and was the Senior Responsible Officer for the NHS 111 Online service. Through COVID, he worked on the Covid vaccinations service, digitising social care, and led teams that created - amongst other things - the messaging service for the 2.2million clinically vulnerable people and a digital health record system for those transferred from hospital to social care.

Prior to the NHS, Iain spent 15 years in digital and technology transformation roles in the private sector, including four years as digital director at Nuffield Health, where he led the development and launch of their national online gym-joining and class-booking services, as well as digitising care pathways in Nuffield’s private hospitals.

Dr Keith Ridge was the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England for nearly twenty years until his recent retirement from the NHS. As the country’s most senior pharmacist, he led the profession and was the NHS’s principal leader on pharmacy and medicines use. Keith was the clinical lead on the introduction of biosimilars to the NHS and had responsibility for medicines optimisation, digital medicines and pharmacy educational reform. He led programmes on transforming pharmacy practice in line with the NHS’s Five Year Forward View and Long Term Plan, including the introduction of clinical pharmacy into general practice. He also played a senior role in the UK’s antimicrobial resistance and influenza programmes, was the clinical lead for securing the medicines supply chain during Covid and has represented Government nationally and internationally. Prior to his national roles he was a Chief Pharmacist at major UK teaching hospitals.