Anna Maxwell — Drug Reclassification, Women's Health & the OTC Contraceptive Pill

Adam Walker:I\'m Adam Walker, a biometrics consultant, and this is the Pharma Prescribed Podcast, where leaders, innovators, in hidden voices in healthcare, open up, no sound bites, no spin, just raw insight, one prescription at a time. In an industry driven by data protocols and pressure, we rarely pause to ask the human questions.

Adam Walker:What drives us, what breaks us, and what truths live behind the titles we wear?

Adam Walker:Anna Maxwell is a mission-driven founder, pharmacist, and entrepreneur dedicated to widening access to medicines and empowering people to take more control of their health. She\'s the CEO and founder of Maxwellia, one of the UK\'s most ambitious, emerging consumer healthcare companies.

Adam Walker:With more than 30 years experience in retail, pharmacy, consumer healthcare, marketing, and commercializing over the counter medicines, Anna specializes in transforming prescription medicines into trusted pharmacy ready brands through the highly regulated process of reclassification.

Adam Walker:As a female founder, she\'s raised over 13 million pounds in equity investment, demonstrating what is possible when purpose and commercial discipline meet relentless ambition. Anna, it\'s a pleasure to welcome you to Pharma Prescribe today. For those of our audience who are not familiar with you, who are you and what is the mission you\'ve been on?

Anna Maxwell:I\'m Anna Maxwell, CEO, and founder of Maxwellia. I\'m a pharmacist by profession and my whole career has been dedicated to widening access to medicines. That\'s the mission I\'m on. Frictionless access to medicines for everybody, everywhere.

Adam Walker:Why is that a mission that you need to be on? I\'m sensing that comes from a deeper purpose behind which.

Adam Walker:Medicines are not so easy to come by.

Anna Maxwell:That\'s right.

Anna Maxwell:I\'ve always been interested in pharmacy ever since an early age I was fascinated with pharmacy and basically was able to build my education and career around becoming a pharmacist. Every role that I have done through my career, I have been, widening access to medicines. So looking for new products to enable people to help themselves without needing necessarily to bother the doctor. Essentially empowering people to look after their own health.

Adam Walker:Is there a gap in the health that people are being provided by gps and. Various other medical professionals then?

Anna Maxwell:Yeah, if you look at the challenges that state healthcare systems have is becoming more and more difficult to actually see a healthcare professional. But there\'s an awful lot we can do to enable people to.

Anna Maxwell:With correct information, correct access to the right type of products to enable them , to self care. Essentially what Maxwell is doing as a company is looking at the back catalog of prescription medicines and harvesting those to create some new blockbuster over the counter medicine. So people can look after themselves in conversation with the pharmacist.

Anna Maxwell:There are many people who have conditions that they\'re not clear that they can do something about. Switching products from prescription to non-prescription status means that we can advertise them, we can drive awareness, and therefore, not only can we draw people into pharmacies to seek advice, if the products aren\'t suitable, then they can be signposted elsewhere.

Anna Maxwell:So there\'s a twofold purpose. One is to enable people to access. Better self-care easily, but also a preventive measure whereby if they have got a more serious underlying condition that needs attention, then they can be signed, posted off elsewhere. And that, and those are really two reasons why we do what we do.

Adam Walker:So I\'m sensing you identified that there was a gap in the market, and I\'m wondering did that come from your background in pharmacy or was there something deeper that came to your attention where you identified that there was an opportunity there?

Anna Maxwell:My career has been a really interesting one, so I started life.

Anna Maxwell:In pharmacy. I studied at Chelsea College, which is now King\'s and I did both conventional medicine and plant medicine during my course there, which really set me in good stead. I started in stores, so I worked in southwest of the country in my early career, and very quickly I became a buyer for boots.

Anna Maxwell:So I did that role for around seven years. So my responsibilities were. Had literally painkillers run to foot care. So at the time there were only a couple of buyers on that section in over the counter medicines. It was my role, given that Boots was a leading retailer of over the counter medicines, to source new products and categories to bring them to the UK consumer.

Anna Maxwell:Through that period whilst I was at Boots, I. Basically looked for opportunities to pull products that were proven and efficacious outta the dispensary. \'cause there was lots of stuff that was, essentially just behind the gate of a prescription when it didn\'t need to be because it\'s classification was perhaps general sale or even pharmacy.

Anna Maxwell:Particularly things like skincare products like Cream E 45 and o Latum. They were locked behind the counter and they didn\'t really need to be in my role there, it was very much around sourcing new products and growing the over the counter medicines category. And whilst I was.

Anna Maxwell:By that the many of the early stage switches, so brands like Neurofen nicotine patches, some of the antihistamines, Imodium they made the transition from prescription to non-prescription status. And it was my role to make sure that pharmacists were trained and those products were successfully commercialized in boots.

Anna Maxwell:That gave me an amazing grounding in terms of how. You can take and repurpose a prescription drug and create a really powerful new consumer friendly, over the counter brand., That gave me an incredible grounding. And then through my career I spent time building other brands, launching brands, doing reclassification work.

Anna Maxwell:When I left corporate it became apparent to me that there was a real lack of innovation. So the number of reclassifications was a real trickle and no one was really doing it. And if they were doing it, then it was taking an awful long time. So I tried to persuade many of the big consumer healthcare companies to pursue switch programs and that was actually very difficult.

Anna Maxwell:After a couple of projects, I decided it was probably easier for me to try and set up a business to do that kind of work. Ourselves, because I knew what needed to be switched. I actually wrote one of the first switch lists for the pharmaceutical society back in the eighties. I recognized that there\'s a huge back catalog of prescription drugs that are safe, efficacious, that if someone took the time to mine that.

Anna Maxwell:Resource, then we could unlock some powerful products that people can safely take in the OTC setting. So essentially that\'s really what I\'ve spent the last 13 years doing to identify the opportunity create a vehicle in Maxwell to. Be able to do that and build a platform whereby now we have six products, commercialized and a pipeline that is pushing products through the regulatory process of reclassification.

Adam Walker:Good heavens. Thank you for explaining that. And I think that probably gives our audience a little bit of an understanding now of what that mission looks like for you as much as translating your. Background and expertise into this opportunity that you\'ve identified. My particular area of interest has always been data in and around clinical research medicines, rare disease medicines, and in fact, we have a mutual contact that speaks extremely highly of you, I know that she will be listening to this with great interest.

Adam Walker:My particular question is around that data specifically, and you are identifying medications that can be repurposed as much as are you using data, or what data are you using to identify where those opportunities exist? Is that underlying many of the platforms and the situations that you find yourself looking into?

Anna Maxwell:The process of reclassifying a drug is a rigorous process that is set out by the MHRA in this country, but there are processes throughout the world, in other jurisdictions. Essentially what , we are doing is taking , an existing prescription drug that has been around for many years and then using the in use data to create.

Anna Maxwell:Regulatory argument that enables that product to transition from prescription to non-prescription status. We don\'t necessarily have to utilize. New data. What we utilize is data that is in the public domain that we can then shape and adapt to produce our legal argument to enable product to, to be reclassified.

Anna Maxwell:Now, what\'s really exciting going forward is that the whole discipline of real world data potentially. I think that\'s very exciting in our world because if we can get really great real world studies, then potentially it means we can start to push things like indications.

Anna Maxwell:Because it may be that in the over-the-counter setting, they\'re getting a better result. For example a particular painkiller may have a better profile in women, , these are the things that we can begin to learn through.

Anna Maxwell:Real world data because I\'m convinced that some of the products that we have in our portfolio actually have superior efficacy in women, but it\'s not actually collected anywhere. So if we could potentially look at that kind of information, I think we can get stronger, better claims and we can help more people.

Anna Maxwell:So I\'d say. For the projects that we\'ve done so far, it\'s been very much utilizing, it\'s repurposing the studies and the clinical evidence that exists to create something new, which is actually quite innovative. Going forward I think there\'s, plenty potential to gather more information about the products that we have over the counter, through the broader mass use and giving these drugs longer leases of life, perhaps in into different indications and different fields than they were originally used for.

Adam Walker:Thank you for explaining and elaborating on that.

Adam Walker:As you mentioned around real world data, I was reminded of the fact that there is so much real world data that sits beneath the hood in many of.

Adam Walker:These healthcare trusts around the uk. Also , across Europe and the US because our data is so fragmented in different healthcare settings and doesn\'t necessarily all come from the same place. Or Indeed is easily accessible. It\'s behind paywalls. It\'s behind key opinion leaders. It can be in particular regions of a country where there is no sharing of that information.

Adam Walker:I\'m wondering if you are. Using any additional tools to unlock some of that real world data? Or is that more of a wish that you want to get into that space? \'cause this is something that I\'ve been working around quite a lot over the last few years seen it firsthand.

Anna Maxwell:It is frustrating because the databases are potentially behind paywalls and

Anna Maxwell:we are being asked for more data. I think it\'s because the regulator thinks that we have access to it, when in fact we don\'t, they have access to it. We don\'t have access to it. I think there\'s two things. Number one, potentially we\'ve been working as an industry with them at MHRA to really look at the reclassification process and how it can be more collaborative and we\'ve made some great.

Anna Maxwell:Inroads in that the NHS England Department of Health, PAGB and the industry have identified a list of conditions and categories that they believe switching reclassifying drugs would be useful in because they believe they could save around 1.7 billion pounds. If that were possible. So it\'s in everybody\'s interests to look at how we can do this. We are knocking on the door in terms of , how can we get the burden of proof in the easiest and most simple cost effective way. Real world data. We do get requested for it, obviously, as part of the process.

Anna Maxwell:And sometimes it\'s just not available or it\'s not available in the format that is needed. And therefore, why should that actually be a blocker when you are dealing with drugs that may actually be already available in other countries or they\'ve been around a long time and there\'s .

Anna Maxwell:Great evidence of their efficacy. , What I would say is everyone is different. And I see that real world data\'s a real enabler, but it\'s where necessary. I think with all these requests, it\'s where necessary because in some instances we have sufficient data and proof that enables these products to move from prescription to non-prescription status.

Anna Maxwell:If we start adding lots of layers, then it just makes it more complicated and more expensive. The key thing is to get the products into the hands of the people that need them. And broadly. That the drugs that we\'re looking at are safe.

Adam Walker:Yeah, I think it\'s a great point that you make around this.

Adam Walker:Safety and patient wellbeing is obviously pivotal to everything that happens with regards to medicines and prescribing around the efficacy and the information that\'s already in the public domain.

Adam Walker:Is there one particular thing that you feel is. An easy win, low hanging fruit that could potentially unlock something for the patients of these particular challenges?

Adam Walker:Yes.

Anna Maxwell:To be honest with you, I think that the one area that we see challenges in is utilizing data from other countries in our applications because. That\'s something we\'re working on so that if a product has already been made available over the counter, then that should be, recognized data for the ability for us to take product . And indeed, if it\'s switched in another country, so long as it\'s on , the list of the collaborating authorities, then that would, that\'s low hanging fruit because I do feel like there\'s a little bit of reinventing the wheel.

Anna Maxwell:For example, we\'ve just launched NAPN, which is a pain reliever for joint muscle and back pain. Now that has been on prescription for 40 years and it is now available over the counter for joint muscle and back pain. But it\'s available in most of the countries of Europe and the us , it\'s actually on general sales.

Anna Maxwell:How is it that we are in a position where the UK is so far behind on that particular drug and really we shouldn\'t have to go through hoops for that really. We have, and we\'ve done it and I\'m very proud that we\'ve done it. Another new nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory available through pharmacy, which is great.

Adam Walker:Yeah. That\'s wonderful to hear.

Adam Walker:I also happen to be aware that you\'ve done quite a lot of work in the women\'s health space. Yes. And I\'d love to just unlock that conversation a little bit more, if you wouldn\'t mind, Anna, because it\'s something that\'s particularly pertinent in my family, in the friendship groups that we have for women of a certain age, and we\'re opening up conversations now.

Adam Walker:That perhaps 10, 15 years ago weren\'t happening. And I\'m putting this in the context of my mother, for example, who in the mid to late eighties had a full hysterectomy and was on HRT then. And she is an unbelievable proponent for the use of HRT in women because she never went through a natural menopause.

Adam Walker:But she also is living proof that. Anecdotally, she\'s a wonderful human specimen and it\'s really served her incredibly well. I\'d love to hear your perspective , on women\'s health and how we can, push the needle in that particular area. Sure.

Anna Maxwell:Globally women\'s health is underserved for lots of reasons, and from a Maxwell point of view, .

Anna Maxwell:Our first initiatives have been in women\'s health and we made history in 2021 by bringing Vema our daily oral contraceptive pill over the counter, which was one of the first in the uk. And I did that really for practical reasons, because I thought it was extremely frustrating the hoops that women had to go through to get access to their contraception when.

Anna Maxwell:Condoms, et cetera, are, available on news agent counters. We did it because the 34% of women said they couldn\'t get access to the contraception that they needed, which, in this day and age is quite shocking. That particular project took a while to deliver, what was interesting about it was the political connotations of it. I hadn\'t really realized the impact we would make. , When we actually launched it, it was held as one of the biggest revolutions in women\'s health for over 60 years here in the uk. I really hadn\'t appreciated what we had really done until we\'d done it.

Anna Maxwell:That for me was a real breakthrough. And I fought through COVID. We were actually trying to get the product license through COVID and it got stuck behind the vaccine, which I was extremely frustrated about because I knew that for the women that needed. The contraceptive pill that particular product was more important than the vaccine because the risk of an unplanned pregnancy is, huge to a woman.

Anna Maxwell:And I think people , underestimate what pregnancy actually does to a woman in terms of their health. So yeah, it got stuck in it. And it got stuck because. We understood that the ministers, so England, Wales, island, Scotland, had to all agree that it should go over the counter, which is not even part of the process.

Anna Maxwell:And we finally, through some political lobbying in lockdown, managed to basically get politicians to write to the health secretary at the time who was Javid. And it literally got unblocked. What we do here is, there\'s a political element of it, and so therefore, timing wise, it\'s now a good time to start looking at opportunities for women\'s health.

Anna Maxwell:So our portfolio is predominantly women\'s health right now, it\'s a pillar within our business plan. So we started with contraception. We launched the pill. We then followed that with an affordable emergency contraception. So our product went out to a retail of 1299 instead of over 20 quid with a very healthy margin for pharmacies.

Anna Maxwell:So it was a disruptor in the fact that we were bringing an affordable product so women could. Protect themselves. And then we\'ve opened up the period care category. So we have a product which is called Ivana, which is for heavy menstrual bleeding heavy periods, which reduces heavy periods by up to 60%.

Anna Maxwell:Now this is a little known product called tranexamic acid. The brands and Ivan Vana. That has really typically been reserved . For hospital and gynecologists rather than being the staple of GP land. So it\'s a very little known drug. But what we\'re finding with it, and this is where real world data is really interesting, is that women who actually use it have a remarkable experience in that it supersedes there.

Anna Maxwell:Expectations in terms of efficacy. I was at an investor event last night and I met a lady and , an investor asked me was I, did I do? I started talking about Ivana and she went you are the person behind Ivana. And I said, yeah. She goes, I\'ve got something in my bag. And I was struggling in her bag and she gets says, thank you so much.

Anna Maxwell:You\'ve changed my life. I cannot believe this product. I saw an ad for it. I can\'t believe how amazing it is. So here\'s an example of where we\'ve actually got a drug that is. And it\'s been around for a long time, but it\'s been behind that gate. No one really knows about it, but can really change the women\'s lives.

Anna Maxwell:These are stories that we are having, repeatedly. So from our point of view, gathering that real world data will actually enable us to say, works in an hour enhance , the whole story around it because it\'s really important that we use those testimonials to give confidence to others and get word of mouth going about the product that for me is really rewarding.

Anna Maxwell:Fortunately it was in front of a potential investors, so that\'s good. Yeah. And then we\'ve also, we also have a ultra, which is a period pain. It\'s contains an naproxen, so it\'s naproxen for period pain. Ring-fenced into that indication. But again superior, more powerful than paracetamal and ibuprofen.

Anna Maxwell:And women, when they take it, really know , they describe the pain as melting away. So all these anecdotes are very important. Imagine if you could have that claim on your back, because of real world data, you\'ve actually gathered the evidence and that\'s how people experience the drugs.

Anna Maxwell:So it\'s enables us to make our products more consumer friendly , ethical in terms of the language that we use. That in fact, this is how I think we\'ll shape product to be more modern in terms of the language and help people understand it better.

Adam Walker:Thank you for explaining that. I think that\'s really compelling in the way that you described that.

Adam Walker:But also, am I correct in thinking that there are challenges, particularly in the uk, that you can\'t necessarily advertise many of these things because you mentioned about it being anecdotal evidence, real world data in the old model.

Adam Walker:When you wanted to get medicines to market, particularly through GPS and pharmacists, you would have medical reps that would go out and sell the service or sell the capabilities versus the market leader or whatever it was. Am I correct in thinking that avenue still exists, but advertising in the UK is not something that we can particularly do?

Adam Walker:Is it?

Anna Maxwell:No, you can\'t. So with an, one of the differences between a prescription drug and an over-the-counter drug is you can advertise however you are bound by the medicines blue guide. And the PAGB code of ethics in terms of the advertising practice. You are very limited in what you can say and you can\'t say, and everything has to go through an approval process.

Anna Maxwell:So in today\'s quick, influencer based fast paced, everybody says what they want, what they like we are not able to do that. So it\'s actually. A higher bar in terms of, some of what\'s happening. Things like TikTok shop and Facebook, they don\'t really work for us because we can\'t be spontaneous, but we can\'t really say and talk in a way that consumers are receiving that information.

Anna Maxwell:So that\'s a big challenge for the industry. Our biggest challenge as a company is that we\'re a small scale up company in order to be able to communicate and drive awareness, we need to educate pharmacists, which we do, and also communicate to consumers that the. Products are available and that costs lots of money.

Anna Maxwell:We do what we can. We\'ve got some fantastic advertising campaigns. We can only go at the pace , that is affordable to us as a small company. That\'s one of my frustrations. And that\'s why as a founder, I\'m continuously on the. Investor trail, trying to find an investor that has deep enough pockets to enable us to be able to, build our RD engine. So keep putting products in the pipe and then also enable us to have the sorts of budgets that we really need to be able to properly commercialize product in the over the counter setting.

Anna Maxwell:Not just here in the UK but globally as well, because it takes money to do that. And if you look at the spans of, the big guys in some of the big markets, then you know these numbers as a, small challenger brand are out of reach to us right now. But that\'s not to say we won\'t get there.

Anna Maxwell:I\'m sure we will.

Adam Walker:I think you\'re doing things with the right intention and certainly the way you describe it and explain your model, it\'s clear, but I do appreciate that. The great unlock is that marketing budget, isn\'t it? Yes. Effectively, you\'re doing amazing things within the confines of what you have to work within.

Adam Walker:That\'s right. Mainly, your marketing budget and how far. Reaching that will take you. Yes.

Adam Walker:So coming back to Maxwell, it\'s a fascinating business model. How big is the business? I\'m curious to know.

Anna Maxwell:So we\'re targeting four and a half million pounds worth of sales next year. We have six products we have commercialized.

Anna Maxwell:But realistically we\'ve not been a multi-product company for very long. Levine was launched in 21. We launched our next product 23. We launched the period Care Brands in 24, and we\'ve just launched the Blockbuster Proxin in the last. Four weeks, and that was our fastest launch ever.

Anna Maxwell:We were given our approval in May, and we got it to shelf on October the third. That\'s from a standing start, we did not know that the approval was coming through, so we managed to galvanize our suppliers, we managed to get listings at the major retailers to deliver that. So I think that is testament to the agility of a company like ours.

Anna Maxwell:There are only 10 of us. But in terms of what we managed to achieve, we are mighty. And I\'m really proud of what we\'ve actually done to bring that latest innovation to market. Essentially I think 2026 is gonna be a great year for us because we\'ve got numerous products now that are listed in retail and beginning to grow.

Anna Maxwell:We also have a pipeline of products that\'s taken a while to build, but it\'s beginning to harvest now. So that\'s again exciting. But , my biggest challenge is access to finance. So we need the investors to support us so that we can continue our excellent work.

Anna Maxwell:That\'s my key kind of focus for the next few months to deliver further funding to be able to take the business to the next level. I think people don\'t realize that, I\'m a member of something called Super Scalers, which is, um. network of women who have an ambition to take businesses over a hundred million pounds in the uk.

Anna Maxwell:Because historically that hasn\'t been tracked and there aren\'t that many. I\'m not gonna quote the numbers, but what is really interesting and it comes back to data, is that through this movement of people, they are beginning to track the data and look at how many women are over a million?

Anna Maxwell:How many women are over five? How many over 10? How many over 50? How many a hundred? And then starting to look at what it takes for you to get next level and enabling mentorship between if you\'re in the million, then you have a mentor at 10 million level, et cetera. It\'s very interesting.

Anna Maxwell:But what they are saying is that, most businesses fail to get to a million. 90% of businesses don\'t get there and they fail. So if you\'ve actually achieved the million, then that is really a big achievement because the hard work has done. And if you then continue to repeat that, then you are building your business for scaling. I think that people don\'t underestimate how very hard it is to actually get to that first base I set Maxwell up in. 2013, but we didn\'t really get going till 2017. I wrote my book Switch Dynamics which essentially laid out my process and what we wanted to do in the world. Then I bootstrapped the company for. It\'s five or six years on projects, but recognized that I couldn\'t get very far without further investment. It took that long between 2013 and 2017 for us to get our first investment. Since then we\'ve been building what I call the platform.

Anna Maxwell:So we now have a. RD pipeline. So we have an engine that is an RD pipeline that\'s harvesting the back catalog of prescription drugs. We then have a commercialization engine that is actually able to get the distribution and market and commercialize the brands that we are now creating. The next part of that is, the firepower and the delivery of all of that that we need.

Anna Maxwell:But, to have actually built a lead agile r and d. Led consumer healthcare company is effectively, what I\'m looking back at now going, wow, that\'s incredible. Now we can just load, new countries, new brands on top of it if we have the right access to finance to do it.

Anna Maxwell:And there\'s no reason why Maxwell can\'t be a top 50 OTC global health consumer healthcare company. Quickly if we get right access to finance, and I feel like we\'re doing the things that others aren\'t doing. We are mining areas, women\'s health, for example. We\'ve identified the.

Anna Maxwell:Opportunities there that are, in my view, the open goals that we can actually really help people throughout the world with the products we bring to market. And, there\'s a lot more that we can do. So I\'m very excited. I\'m very proud of where we\'ve come from and I\'m very proud, that we\'ve got six products on the market now that are doing their work each day.

Anna Maxwell:And there\'s so much more to come.

Adam Walker:Those are extraordinary numbers that you described. Given the staff base and the turnover that you are managing.

Adam Walker:I\'m wondering whether many of those support services could be bolt on in a kind of.

Anna Maxwell:Yeah, essentially

Adam Walker:people,

Anna Maxwell:The model\'s really lean. So if can outsource things we do which enables us to be able to focus on the talent that we need for the brains behind the switching and the marketing and the commercialization piece.

Anna Maxwell:Given who we are we\'re a group of experienced passionate consumer healthcare professionals, we operate within our resource, but we\'re also very creative. We work with amazing creative partners and.

Anna Maxwell:We, serve to disrupt and break down taboos. And I guess because we\'re independent and because, at the end of the day, the book stops with me on how we show up in the world. We do tend to push boundaries, which moves us further. We will continue to hang on to the. DNA, that is the marketing piece, how we show up in the world, positioning, marketing and anything else, that we can work with partners with. We do keeps us nimble, agile, and fresh.

Adam Walker:I think that\'s helpful just to understand.

Adam Walker:Where you are at the moment, and it would be remiss of me not to ask the question with regards to how you feel the advent of technology around AI might further those opportunities for you. This is quite specific your business model, but nevertheless, I think broadly AI impacts all of us in and around clinical research medicine. Bringing patients the medicines that they need as quickly as possible.

Anna Maxwell:Sure. I believe it\'s great enabler. I think that we will see more wraparound, services, if I call them that, , around the products that we sell in the future? It can actually help speed up processes, research processes. I think it\'s very exciting. I\'m not afraid of it. As a CEO, you\'ve gotta embrace it as quickly as possible and find out how you can leverage it as another competitive advantage for your business.

Anna Maxwell:We do use it in the work that we do. I think that we will become more sophisticated and we\'ll use it more as a tool rather than a helper. We\'ll use it as a tool and we\'ll use it as an integral part of our. Methodology in the future.

Anna Maxwell:For sure.

Adam Walker:I\'m glad to hear that because I speak regularly to founders and startup companies, also in med tech, and what I\'m seeing are some incredibly talented, amazingly driven individuals who are pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible only a year or two ago to really. Challenge what those status quos look like in our very conservative industry that we work in, but also pushing the bar with regards to , what we even thought was possible yesterday.

Adam Walker:Yeah. Versus tomorrow, the great enabler around the pandemic being, getting vaccines into humans as quickly as we did in the same way. Following on from that, this feels like the next great enabler to me, particularly in the med tech space, I would say. Would you concur with that?

Anna Maxwell:Definitely. I think it\'s, I think it\'s gonna be really interesting and I guess it\'s how does the regulations , account for it to make sure that it\'s going to be. Safe, and , trusted. So it is gonna be interesting Few years really, I think.

Adam Walker:Yeah, absolutely.

Adam Walker:At this point in the conversation, I like to conclude with a quick fire round, Anna, and I wonder what is the one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Anna Maxwell:Start earlier.

Anna Maxwell:Just go for it.

Adam Walker:Don\'t we wish we did? What are the top three qualities you value most when building a team?

Anna Maxwell:So purpose. So purpose driven, believes in the mission. Then it\'s around, trust and loyalty. So there\'s that culture based things I guess capabilities are given and using your recruitment process to, to filter out what\'s really important.

Adam Walker:My sense is you\'ve got, a very tight ship with the people that you have. You know those people and you trust them. And they trust you. Yeah. Otherwise, they wouldn\'t be on that ship, would they?

Anna Maxwell:Yep. Yep.

Adam Walker:And your favorite thing outside of work?

Anna Maxwell:Skiing.

Adam Walker:Nice. Have you got any plans for the winter? I

Anna Maxwell:am. I\'m off for my annual ski trip.

Adam Walker:Lovely. And finally, what is your number one golden rule in life and in business?

Anna Maxwell:Never give up.

Adam Walker:I think that\'s a wonderful place in which we conclude the conversation today.

Adam Walker:Anna, you\'ve given us a great insight to your drive, your determination, and the goals behind Max Weller. I think it\'s been fascinating to understand a little bit more about the person behind the business and indeed. The future plans for the company and the organization. I hope it continues to grow from strength to strength.

Adam Walker:And I hope you are able to acquire those supportive structures around which I think the business , will flourish beyond, which it already has. , So I wish you all the very best with that. And, , sincerely thank you being so generous with your time today and coming on Pharma Prescribed.

Anna Maxwell:Thank you.