The Novartis Dr. Vincent Barry Medal 2023/2024 awarded to Ker Ying Thin
The new Novartis sponsored Dr. Vincent Barry Medal was awarded for the first time on Monday 2nd December 2024 and we were delighted to have Mr. Shane Hayes of Novartis in UCD to make the presentation in person.
Ker Ying Thin is the very first recipient of the Novartis – Dr. Vincent Barry Medal. She received this accolade for being the best performing student by achieving the highest Grade Point Average (GPA) in the School of Chemistry Taught MSc Programmes in the 2023/24 academic year.
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Ker Ying Thin and Shane Hayes of Novartis
This Medal is named for Dr. Vincent Barry who was awarded a first class honours BSc degree in Chemistry in 1928 by UCD and went on to make a significant contribution managing the team that uncovered the anti-leprosy drug clofazimine. Clofazimine was first synthesised in 1954 by a team of scientists led by Dr. Barry. It was originally targeted at Tuberculosis but was later found to be very effective against leprosy. Dr. Barry and his team donated the rights to Clofazimine to Novartis so that it could be provided to leprosy sufferers on a non commercial basis. In 1969, Novartis launched it under the brand name Lamprene.
The fight against leprosy is one of the greatest public health successes in history. Yet, still today, 2 to 3 million people are living with physical disability and stigma as a result of the disease. For more than 30 years, Novartis has been working with partners around the world to (opens in a new window)eliminate leprosy. Multidrug therapy (MDT) of which Clofazimine is the original component, has been a major breakthrough in the treatment of leprosy and its free availability has reduced the global disease burden by 95% in the past three decades.
Since 2000, Novartis has donated more than 70 million blister packs of multidrug therapy (MDT) valued at approximately USD 124 million through the World Health Organization (WHO), helping to treat more than 7.5 million leprosy patients worldwide. Further, the donation has made it possible to interrupt the transmission of leprosy and prevent disabilities. Find out more information about the (opens in a new window)Novartis Leprosy initiative.
The School of Chemistry is very grateful to Novartis for their generous sponsorship of this prestigious annual medal.
Pictured below at the presentation from Left to Right: Shane Hayes of Novartis, Ker Ying Thin, James Sullivan & Paul Evans
