The BioIndustry Association and Kidney Research UK announce new 2022 Charity of the Year partnership

The BioIndustry Association (BIA) is delighted to announce Kidney Research UK as its charity partner for 2022. Kidney disease affects three million people in the UK with 20 people developing kidney failure each day. The charity undertakes research to end kidney disease, offering kidney patients and their families hope for the future. The partnership aims to raise funds, increase awareness of kidney health, and promote kidney research to the life sciences ecosystem.

The BIA, the UK’s trade association for innovative life sciences, will support Kidney Research UK both through employee fundraising activities and strategic opportunities across the next 12 months. The partnership will be formally launched at the BIA’s Gala Dinner on 27 January 2022.

The partnership aligns closely with the BIA’s commitment to position the UK as a global hub for innovative research, enabling our world-leading research base to deliver healthcare solutions that can truly make a difference to people's lives.

Over the past decade some progress has been made in treating kidney disease, for which there is no cure. Treatments can be gruelling and kidney disease continues to rise with five people dying every week while on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Kidney Research UK aims to prevent kidney disease and protect people from reaching kidney failure by learning how to spot disease early, halting disease progression, and repairing kidney damage.

The BIA and Kidney Research UK are excited to work together to provide better outcomes for people affected with kidney disease to live life better and to drive research that transforms treatments.

Steve Bates OBE, Chief Executive of the BIA said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the team at Kidney Research UK for 2022. Health charities are a key component of the UK’s life science innovation ecosystem; their research is driven by patient insight and provides deep scientific and clinical disease expertise that UK SMEs can learn from and partner with. 
 
“I look forward to celebrating this partnership at our Gala dinner in the new year and identifying areas of opportunities for the charity with our membership.”
 
Sandra Currie, chief executive of Kidney Research UK said: “Now is the time to bring together more industry and academia collaborations and to establish stronger relations between everyone involved in research, so we are thrilled to have been chosen as the BIA’s 2022 charity of the year. There is so much potential in this partnership and the benefits it could bring kidney patients. We will be drawing on the expertise of the BIA and its member organisations to help influence policy, build capacity and connect industry, charity and academia to help transform lives.

“Patients urgently need treatments for kidney disease to progress, as this will reduce the burden and restrictions that the disease and its management place on their lives. We’re excited that relationships developed through the BIA and its members could help significantly to shorten the journey of novel treatments from bench to bedside and change the face of diagnostics.”

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For more information contact Alina O’Keeffe, Head of Marketing and Membership Communications [email protected]

The BIA’s Gala Dinner will be held at the Brewery on 27 January 2022. For more information, please visit www.biagaladinner.org

Find out more about BIA's Charity Partnership of the Year

 

About Kidney Research UK

As the largest kidney research charity in the UK, nothing is going to stop us in our urgent mission to end kidney disease. We’re here to be heard, to make a difference, to change the future. This is a disease that ruins and destroys lives. It must be stopped.

Over the past 60 years, our research has made an impact. But kidney failure is rising, as are the factors contributing to it, such as diabetes and obesity. Today, we are more essential than ever.

Kidney disease affects three million people in the UK, treatments can be gruelling and currently there is no cure. Only research will end this. For more information, please visit www.kidneyresearchuk.org

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