Mike Thompson appointed Chairman of Brevia Health

Brevia Consulting has appointed Mike Thompson as Chairman of Brevia Health and a member of its Advisory Board. Thompson brings over 25 years of experience in the Life Sciences sector including, most recently, as CEO of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and in senior roles at GSK. He also sits on the Life Sciences Advisory Board of the British Growth Fund.

In his role, Thompson will oversee Brevia Health, a dedicated division of Brevia Consulting, which offers a team of consultants with experience in pharmaceuticals, IT Health, in vitro diagnostics, medical devices and genomics.

Brevia Health provides straightforward public affairs and public relations support to organisations operating in the highly regulated UK healthcare sector.  Services include political monitoring, strategic advice, media relations, select committee training, and comprehensive stakeholder engagement programmes that encompass Westminster, Whitehall, Brussels, and the devolved administrations.

In his role as CEO of the APBI (2016-19), Thompson was intimately involved in ensuring that the UK could continue to supply medicines through any Brexit scenario, and worked in partnership with the DHSC to bring forward policy proposals to ensure the system would cope. He oversaw the negotiations which secured the pharmaceutical industry’s VPAS (Voluntary Pricing and Access Scheme), which replaced the PPRS (Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme), and gained agreement for over £60bn of expenditure on branded pharmaceuticals over 5 years.

Thompson has worked closely with No 10, Treasury, DHSC, BEIS and the Office of Life Sciences, including serving on Government / Industry engagement forums with the Health and Business Secretaries. This has delivered tangible policy outcomes such as the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, which ultimately secured two Sector Deals bringing billions of pounds of new investment to the UK.

During his time at GSK (1995 - 2015), Thompson held senior roles at Global, European Regional, and UK levels of the company that gave him insight into the dynamics and interplay of complex organisations. He ran the global Commercial Analytics, Digital, Payer, and Launch Excellence teams.

David Beamer, Managing Director of Brevia Consulting said:

‘I am delighted to welcome Mike to Brevia. He brings over 25 years of life sciences experience  to the team and his recent experience as CEO of the ABPI put him at the heart of UK drug pricing and approval policy.’

Mike Thompson said:

‘I am excited to have joined Brevia, which has supported clients in the health sector for over 20 years.  I look forward to working with my new colleagues to develop our health client base and provide expert advice and support to clients.’