The experts came together during a strategic national event hosted by the UK Hub for Advanced Long-acting Therapeutics (HALo) with co-hosts Infection Innovation Consortium: iiCON; The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and the Henry Royce Institute. 

Long-acting therapeutics are pharmaceutical agents and drug delivery systems designed to release medication into the body slowly and consistently over an extended period. This transformative area of medicine has the potential to improve treatment adherence and patient outcomes. 

Building on the success of the Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT), HALo is a national research hub funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) which brings together academics, industry, clinicians and other stakeholders including patient groups and policy makers.  

HALo is based at the University of Liverpool and operates in collaboration with key partners including the University of Manchester, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Nottingham. 

Attendees at the event on 6 November 2025 at Liverpool’s historic Liver Building included representatives from the NHS, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), ViiV Healthcare, and Upperton Pharma Solutions, alongside industrial and contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) stakeholders from across the UK. 

Professor Steve Rannard, Co-Director of CELT and Director of HALo, opened the meeting, which featured presentations and discussions exploring how the UK can accelerate innovation, build manufacturing capability, and expand equitable patient access to long-acting medicines. 

He said: “This first meeting of industry and CDMO stakeholders to discuss the future of long-acting medicines in the UK will act as a platform for further targeted interactions. The interest in this emerging revolution in medicine was clear from the enthusiasm and energy throughout the meeting. HALo will continue to drive this agenda and engage strongly to build the depth of the UK’s capabilities.” 

Professor Ryan Donnelly, Chair in Pharmaceutical Technology at Queen’s University Belfast and Co-Principal Investigator of HALo said:

"Taking a comprehensive approach to development of new medicines, with involvement of all of the key stakeholders, is essential to ensuring academic discoveries progress from the laboratory to the clinic.

"During the meeting, it was clear that there is an ever-increasing need for development of long-acting therapeutics and that there is strong support across a range of specialties for advancement of the physical, clinical and regulatory science, with patient input, to improve therapeutic outcomes and health-related quality-of-life." 

The event included sessions on regulatory frameworks, clinical needs, and manufacturing innovation, concluding with collaborative roundtable discussions on future research priorities and national partnerships. 

The outcomes from the meeting will inform HALo’s continuing work to build a UK-wide network for long-acting therapeutics, supporting future collaboration between academia, industry, CDMOs and the NHS.  

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Media inquiries to Sian Devlin at s.devlin@qub.ac.uk