Medicines and side effects
Making medicines easier to live with
Medicines only work if people can keep taking them. We support research into side effects and how they can be prevented, spotted and managed.
A medicine that a person stops taking does nothing at all. Side effects are one of the most common reasons treatment is abandoned, and yet the research into managing them is thin compared with the research into developing new drugs.
The reason is straightforward. There is a strong commercial case for a new medicine and a weak one for making an existing medicine easier to tolerate. Our founders spent twenty-five years in drug development and watched that imbalance play out again and again.
Duet funds the other half of the story: understanding who is most at risk, catching problems in the first weeks rather than months, and giving patients and community pharmacists better tools to sort a manageable side effect from one that needs urgent attention.
What we look for
- Understanding why side effects affect some people and not others
- Practical ways for patients and pharmacists to manage side effects together
- Honest, readable guidance about what to expect from a new medicine
Have you experienced this?
Patient experience shapes what we fund. If side effects have affected your treatment, we would genuinely like to hear about it.
Get in touchOur first medicines grant
We are funding a study with community pharmacists looking at how side effects are recorded and acted on during the first month of a new prescription — the point at which most people decide whether they will keep taking it.
Read our newsSmall charity, practical help
Duet is funded by our founders and by people who believe useful research should not stall for want of a modest amount of money. Every gift goes into projects.