In 1967, following an extended period of spectacular success and optimism in the Pharmacuticals industry that had seen the discovery of a wide range of new antibiotics and the development of effective vaccines against many childhood infections, the United States Surgeon General Dr William H. Stewart captured the mood of the time with his now infamous words “It is time to close the book on infectious diseases, and declare the war against pestilence won”.

Unfortunately, recent years have witnessed the emergence of HIV as a worldwide pandemic, the spread of antibiotic resistance at an alarming rate particularly in hospital acquired bacterial infections, and the spread, emergence and re-emergence of diseases such as HCV, SARS, MERS, and Ebola. Pandemic influenza still tops the UK’s National Risk Register because of the social and economic disruption that could result.