How Bath research - from pharmacology and psychology, to chemistry and social policy - is protecting consumers and improving health
Pharmacy research at the University of Bath spans multiple themes: drug and target discovery, medicines design, and health and clinical research. From reducing emergency hospital admissions to tackling antimicrobial resistance, making cannabis use safer, and transforming drug delivery, University of Bath researchers are driving innovations that address some of the most pressing health challenges worldwide. Together, they show how research across disciplines can work hand-in-hand to shape healthier futures.
Research reducing emergency hospital admissions
Older adults often take multiple medications to manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and arthritis. This can lead to prescribing cascades, where side effects from one drug are treated with additional medications, creating a cycle of escalating complexity and risk. A new study from the University of Bath has found that polypharmacy—the excessive or unnecessary use of multiple medications—is a major driver of emergency hospital admissions among adults aged 65 and over.
“Inappropriate polypharmacy remains a global issue,” says Dr Prasad Nishtala, one of the Bath researchers involved in the study. “The identification of consistent risk factors across studies highlights the timeliness and relevance of the current investigation.”
Published in Age and Ageing, the UK’s leading journal on clinical gerontology, this research is the first of its kind to use data-driven methods to explore how potentially inappropriate polypharmacy contributes to short-term hospitalisation in older adults. With this population growing rapidly and facing increased risks of complications from hospitalisation, the findings reinforce concerns in geriatric care over the dangers of overprescribing.
Robert Olender, the PhD researcher who led the study, envisions an app for clinicians that uses a simple questionnaire to assess a patient’s risk of hospitalisation. “With more older adults on complex drug regimens,” he says, “we need proactive ways to reduce preventable emergency hospitalisations.” By identifying high-risk patients early, clinicians could adjust medication regimens, encourage physical activity, or address modifiable lifestyle factors—simple steps that could significantly reduce an individual's risk of an emergency admission.
“As populations age worldwide, addressing inappropriate polypharmacy has become a key public health priority. Our new study contributes to the international evidence base by employing advanced data-driven methods to gain a deeper understanding of the scale and consequences of this issue in the UK context.”
Dr Prasad Nishtala
Dr Prasad Nishtala
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Helping policymakers track antimicrobial resistant “superbugs”
Infections caused by microorganisms—viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic—represent a huge global disease burden with profound social and economic costs. While antimicrobials have been a powerful weapon in controlling infectious disease, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through excessive or inappropriate use has created a looming crisis that demands urgent solutions.
AMR occurs when bacteria evolve and no longer respond to antibiotic treatment. Identified by the World Health Organization as one of the world’s biggest killers, AMR is responsible for over five million deaths annually.
Resistance can develop through several routes: overuse or misuse of antibiotics to treat or prevent infections, use in farm animals to boost meat production, or through bacteria acquiring resistance genes from other microbes in the environment.
Professor Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, Director of the Centre of Excellence in Water-Based Early-Warning Systems for Health Protection (CWBE), is one of the researchers exploring the extent of the crisis. “The spread of antimicrobial resistance is a huge threat to all our lives—we rely on antibiotics for treating common infections and to safely carry out surgical procedures,” she says.
Barbara and colleagues from the Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Sustainability and Climate Change have partnered with Wessex Water to track antibiotic use and the presence of AMR-linked genes in the environment by analysing wastewater. Over two years, they sampled four wastewater treatment plants in southwest England and compared results with historic data, correlating findings with antibiotic prescription rates.
“In 2020, a significant reduction in antibiotics and AMR genes was observed during COVID-19 lockdowns, primarily due to social distancing measures that limited pathogen transmission. After lockdowns ended and social interactions increased, both antibiotic prescriptions and AMR gene prevalence rose, indicating greater pathogen spread among individuals.”
Published in the Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance, the study suggests that reducing antibiotic use alone may not be enough to tackle AMR. “Once resistance genes are out there in the environment,” Barbara explains, “they can be transferred between bacteria, making more and more of them resistant to treatment.”
Understanding how AMR persists and transforms in waterways is key to developing practical tools and monitoring strategies. Barbara and her team hope this evidence will inform coordinated interventions that go beyond current strategies and strengthen national efforts to reduce dissemination through wastewater.
Bath’s research making cannabis safer
Around one-third of adults in the UK have tried cannabis. It is one of the most widely used drugs globally and, as a Class B substance, carries penalties of up to five years in prison for possession and up to 14 years for supply and production. However, recent years have seen significant global shifts: countries such as Canada, Uruguay, and many US states have legalised cannabis for non-medical use, while medical cannabis has been legalised in numerous countries, including the UK in 2018.
Professor Tom Freeman, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, is developing innovative strategies to reduce cannabis-related harms worldwide, supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, a scheme to develop the next wave of world-class research and innovation leaders in academia and business. His pioneering work includes creating a recommended 5mg standard unit for cannabis—similar to the 8g alcohol unit. This unit measures the primary active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and can be applied across all products and methods of use. For the first time, this would allow researchers, clinicians, and the public to quantify cannabis consistently.
“By developing this unit, our vision is to unlock multiple strategies for reducing cannabis harms globally. In the same way that the alcohol unit is the cornerstone of international alcohol guidelines, the standard THC unit can help people who use cannabis, healthcare professionals, and policymakers to improve health and wellbeing.”
Tom’s work has gained support from the world’s largest health funder, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which issued an open call for evidence and now mandates investigators it funds to use the 5mg THC unit in all applicable studies. “Endorsement of our unit by the largest health funder in the world will help to improve consistency and precision of measurement internationally,” says Tom.
He is also collaborating with Health Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction to implement the standard unit in Canada’s legal cannabis market. This follows a legislative review of the Canadian Cannabis Act, which recommends mandating standard units on product labels aligned with alcohol labelling.
Professor Freeman and his team are now using this standardised unit to study dose-related health impacts with greater precision, including cannabis use disorder—which affects 22% of users—as well as psychotic disorders and adolescent brain development. Their findings are informing safer-use guidelines and influencing product warning labels. Research shows cannabis potency (THC concentration) has risen internationally, and higher-potency products carry greater health risks, including cannabis use disorder and psychosis. Insights from Bath research have shaped Health Canada’s mandated warning labels, similar to tobacco warnings based on health risks.
Professor Tom Freeman, Department of Psychology at the University of Bath.
Professor Tom Freeman, Department of Psychology at the University of Bath.
New research is a step towards swapping injections for pills
Protein therapies that currently require injections—such as growth hormones, immunotherapy cancer treatments, and diabetes and weight management drugs—are a step closer to being taken as pills, thanks to new technologies developed at the University of Bath.
While many medications can be taken orally, drugs made of proteins such as antibodies, certain hormones, and peptides (small proteins) cannot cross the gut wall to enter the body. This makes injections painful, inconvenient, and sometimes a barrier to adherence, especially for patients with chronic conditions.
Now, scientists at Bath have developed strategies to transport therapeutic proteins and peptides across the gut wall and into the bloodstream, enabling these medications to be taken as pills. Professor Randy Mrsny, from the Department of Life Sciences, led the studies, published in two articles in the Journal of Controlled Release (December 2023 and September 2025).
“We identified natural mechanisms inherent to the human gut,” says Randy, “and used them to deliver protein and peptide therapeutics in ways that make them now orally available.”
“Whilst it’s not the first system to replace injections, ours is the first platform to work safely and consistently, efficiently delivering the drug at effective doses and using well-understood pathways. Once it’s been developed into a pill, our approaches would be more convenient for patients than injections, meaning no more needles.”
One approach works by mimicking a natural mechanism used by gut bacteria, consistently delivering more than 10% of the drug into the bloodstream, enough to make it commercially viable. Another approach transiently increases uptake from the intestine. The team is now working with pharmaceutical companies to optimise these approaches for specific indications, with the potential to begin human testing within two years.
“We believe this work has the potential to transform the lives of patients who currently have to frequently inject themselves,” adds Randy. “This would make it much easier for children who need to take growth hormones and for patients whose eyesight or dexterity complicate the injection process.”
Drug companies repeatedly violate their marketing code, warns research
New data analysis by University of Bath and Lund University academics reveals that public health in the UK could be undermined by a failing system of drug company self-regulation. Dr Piotr Ozieranski at Bath and Dr Shai Mulinari from Lund examined 1,776 complaints against drug company misconduct over 18 years and found consistent violations of the industry’s marketing code.
“By considering the industry’s own documents, we have revealed widespread and repeat offending among drug companies,” says Dr Piotr Ozieranski, from the Department of Social & Policy Sciences. “This misconduct, alongside huge delays in complaint processing, poses serious consequences for patient health.”
The research found that not only are code violations pervasive, but 13% of the total number of cases (247) involve breaches branded as “severe” by the industry’s self-regulatory body. These failings are compounded by significant delays in complaint processing—averaging 9 to almost 11 months in recent years—which allow unethical or unsafe marketing practices to persist.
Piotr cites the recent example of Danish drug company Novo Nordisk, suspended from the ABPI for two years in 2023 for serious breaches involving unethical marketing of its anti-obesity drug Saxenda. The complaint argued that Novo Nordisk had sponsored courses for health professionals focusing on using its drug for weight management without making its involvement sufficiently clear, as judged by the industry's self-regulatory body.
In recent months Dr Ozieranski - together with Dr Emily Rickard - also from the Department of Social and Policy Sciences - have teamed up with civil society advocates to inform the upcoming UK government guidance on drug company self-regulation, including transparency around financial ties with healthcare professionals and organisations. Such efforts, according to Piotr and Emily, would enhance patient safety, ensure value for taxpayers, and increase trust in healthcare systems.
Dr Piotr Ozieranski and Dr Emily Rickard, who was involved in later research relating to drug company self-regulation
Dr Piotr Ozieranski and Dr Emily Rickard, who was involved in later research relating to drug company self-regulation
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