Spotlight Interview: Dave Holmes – Bionow
As part of a new series of blogs focussing on industry experts we recently caught up with Dave Holmes, Membership Manager for Bionow. Dave has worked for Bionow for over 3 and a half years and has a real understanding about the biotech industry, lets see what he had to say…
What has the past 12 months taught you?
A lot, the resilience of this sector and people in it, but also the value of collaboration and sharing ideas, the value of working together and the innovative nature of so many of the people and companies we at Bionow work with.
What are your hopes for our industry?
The Pandemic has elevated the profile of our industry, the sector faced huge challenges and met them all with flying colours. When you look at what happened, the arrival of a new virus, the research into it’s structure, and then how to diagnose it accurately, quickly and at low cost, also how to repurpose existing medicines as therapeutics, and also the development of effective and scalable vaccines, and we aren’t finished yet, as there are to be vaccines that combine protection against Covid and Flu in the pipeline and ultimately bespoke therapeutics for this virus.
My hopes for the industry are that we build on this hard work and this exposure, that we consolidate the public profile, that the wider public around the country and world have become familiar with everything from PCR testing to vaccines, and with the rapid and widespread take up it is pleasing to see misinformation out there about vaccines firmly debunked. Therefore, building on this legacy, the goodwill from the public is really important, that awareness will help the public in the long term, it will help the sector as hopefully more young people will pursue careers in science, and the industrial legacy has provided many lessons in terms of how to rapidly develop new tests and medicines and surely these are lessons that can be applied to other diseases and conditions, which in turn will instigate further growth in the sector with more jobs and opportunities.
What is your favourite part of your role?
Helping people, helping them develop their businesses and connect with others across the sector, I do get a lot of pride from when I hear there has being a positive development from a connection Bionow has been instrumental in, whether that be via an event we have ran or a direct introduction between people or a news post on the Bionow website that has led to a lead or collaboration.
