Press Release
Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Announces David Cameron, Chair of its Advisory Council, as a Guest Speaker at Morgan Stanley Exchange 2025
September 10, 2025
OXFORD, UK and CLEVELAND, Ohio, US, 10 September 2025 – The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (‘OHC’), a partnership between the University of Oxford, UK and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio, dedicated to creating new medicines for rare diseases, announces that Lord Cameron, former UK Prime Minister and Chair of the OHC Advisory Council, was a featured guest speaker at the Morgan Stanley Exchange 2025 conference in New York City on Tuesday, 9 September 2025.
Lord Cameron joined Andy Saperstein, Co-President of Morgan Stanley, for the session entitled “A Conversation on Courage”, an intimate dialogue exploring leadership, philanthropy, and their shared commitment to advancing progress in rare disease research and treatment.
As Chair of the OHC Advisory Council, Lord Cameron leads international efforts to advance the Centre’s bold mission: to deliver 40 new rare disease treatments by 2034. His leadership builds on a personal dedication to this cause, rooted in his family’s own experience of rare disease and his role in founding Genomics England and the landmark 100,000 Genomes Project.
Lord Cameron, Chair of the OHC Advisory Council, said: “Of the causes I have advocated, this one is personal. The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre brings together the very best of academia, life sciences, philanthropy, and industry to deliver hope for millions worldwide living with rare diseases. I was honoured to represent the OHC at Exchange 2025, to discuss our work to help the many millions of families whose lives are affected by these devastating conditions. Progress at the scale we need will only happen if philanthropy and investment step forward boldly. By convening leading institutions, funders, and innovators, we hope to accelerate the development of treatments and create real change for patients and their loved ones.”
Andy Saperstein, Co-President of Morgan Stanley, said: “We were honored to welcome Lord Cameron to Exchange 2025 for a truly inspiring conversation. His leadership at the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre highlights how collaboration across science, philanthropy, and investment can transform the future for millions of patients worldwide. At Morgan Stanley, we believe in the power of courageous ideas, as illustrated by our partnership with Harrington Discovery Institute, to drive new cures, and this dialogue shined a light on the role we can all play in advancing solutions for rare diseases.”
The Morgan Stanley Exchange brings together leaders in philanthropy, healthcare, and innovation to explore bold ideas for addressing global challenges. Lord Cameron’s participation underscored the importance of investment, partnership, and the role of philanthropy in bridging funding gaps to deliver new treatments for rare diseases.
About Rare Diseases
An estimated 500 million people worldwide are living with a rare disease, and approximately 50 percent are children. There are about 7,000 known rare diseases, with new diseases being discovered every day. A rare disease affects one in 10 Americans, or 10 percent of the US population. In the Middle East, the prevalence of rare diseases is rising, and many countries in the region are now prioritising research and treatment options. The majority of all rare diseases are genetic in origin, which means they are present throughout a person’s life. Only five percent of rare diseases have a treatment approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and similar estimates have been made for treatments approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Therefore, someone with a rare disease today faces a lifelong, often life-threatening, condition with little hope for a cure, or even an effective treatment option.
About Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre
The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (OHC) is a partnership between the University of Oxford, UK and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, in Cleveland, Ohio, US. The OHC combines world-leading strengths in research and therapeutics development from across these organizations to set the science and innovation agenda and drive cutting-edge rare disease breakthroughs to address the unmet need in rare diseases across the globe to deliver major clinical impact for patients. For more information, visit: OxfordHarrington.org | LinkedIn | X
About the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is rated the best in the world for medicine and life sciences, and it is home to the UK’s top-ranked medical school. It has one of the largest clinical trial portfolios in the UK and great expertise in taking discoveries from the lab into the clinic. Partnerships with the local National Health Service Trusts enable patients to benefit from close links between medical research and healthcare delivery. For more information, visit: www.ox.ac.uk
About Harrington Discovery Institute
Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, aims to advance academic discoveries into medicines to address unmet need. It was created in 2012 with a $50 million founding gift from the Harrington family and has supported more than 200 scientists throughout the US, UK and Canada. Harrington Discovery Institute uses an innovation model that surrounds scientists with drug development and business expertise and employs both philanthropic funding and catalytic investment capital to advance projects into the clinic and through commercialization. For more information, visit: HarringtonDiscovery.org| LinkedIn | X
Media contacts:
UK/ EU – MEDiSTRAVA
Sylvie Berrebi / Mark Swallow
US – For University Hospitals
Ansley Kelm