Our Mission and Focus Areas
We enjoy building lasting relationships in the healthcare sector by providing an exceptional service. Our vision is to be a community of the very best people, constantly challenging ourselves to make meaningful and outstanding contributions to improving healthcare.
Improving Healthcare
True Experts & Thought Leaders
Trusted Partner
Global & Connected
A Word From Sophie Costello
“We are always thinking about how we can be a company that tries to be a force for good for our clients, our teams, the environment and our communities.”
Costello Medical at a Glance 2021
Improving Healthcare
Bespoke Delphi App
The Delphi method is a structured and systematic technique often used to gather consensus on specific issues from a group of experts in a particular field. We are committed to conducting robust Delphi panels that maximise efficiency and minimise the burden on participants, and in 2021 we finally launched our bespoke Delphi app. This was developed in collaboration with our in-house Technical Innovation and Development division and Rare Diseases division. For more information on the Delphi app please contact Annabel Griffiths.
Annabel Griffiths
Head of Rare Diseases
+44 (0) 7803 210 037
As the Head of Rare Diseases at Costello Medical, Annabel leads a patient-focused, multidisciplinary team that is able to respond to the complex needs of developers and manufacturers of orphan and ultra-orphan drugs.
Annabel leads project types across all of our services, including evidence development, health economics, market access and medical affairs. Annabel has worked with pharmaceutical industry, public and charity sector clients supporting both established and pipeline products, and has extensive experience in a wide-range of rare diseases, including metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative conditions and rare oncology.
Annabel actively contributes to academic discussions in the field; most recently she moderated a panel discussion at the HTAi 2019 Annual Meeting focused on expert opinion in rare diseases and participated in a workshop at ISPOR Asia Pacific 2018 discussing delayed access for rare diseases patients. Annabel is dedicated to supporting a number of rare disease charities, including leading a collaboration with Findacure that led to publication of two peer-reviewed manuscripts describing economic evidence for Findacure’s innovative Social Impact Bond project.
Prior to joining Costello Medical, Annabel completed a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Cambridge, having previously received a BA in Natural Sciences at the same institution. In addition, Annabel has a Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Economics from the University of York where she received the prize for best examination performance.
There were a number of key divisional achievements in 2021:
We launched dedicated teams specialising in Medical Communications, Market Access and Health Economics and Evidence Development
— APAC
In 2021, we saw a 100% growth in team size and 500% growth in client base since Costello Medical Shanghai was founded in mid-2019
— China
We are delighted to have had Statisticians, Epidemiologists and Health Economists join our US office, allowing us to provide tailored and comprehensive scientific support to our clients in the region
— US
2021 saw us support our clients across more than 30 HTA submissions globally, and in doing so develop our HTA experience across more than 15 different indications
— HTA
In 2021, our health economics and statistics teams combined forces to work with 16 different clients on projects across more than 25 therapy areas, and we welcomed our first Project Assistant to support with our technical client service offerings
— Health Economics and Statistics
We collaborated with both new and established clients on 22 different value dossiers in 2021, working across a wide range of medical specialties and geographies to support market access for these products
— Market Access
In 2021, our global medical affairs team collaborated with >10 different client companies to deliver >70 virtual medical events that together spanned European, Asia Pacific, North American and Latin American regions. These activities covered a range of advisory boards, satellite symposia and stand-alone medical education events, with more than half having an international scope
— Medical Affairs
Through 2021, we had 16 promotions within our Publications Division and welcomed 19 new team members
— Publications
We were delighted to be shortlisted as finalists in the “Pro Bono for Charity or Patient Organisation” category at the PM Society Awards 2021
— Design
We supported 15 different clients (including 4 new ones), delivering literatures reviews in over 25 disease areas
— Literature Reviews and Synthesis
We successfully delivered over 10 projects across Europe, the US and Asia, ranging from early database mapping projects through to publication of our full claims database analysis. Among our most exciting projects, we completed a quality of life study using preferences of the UK general public, received approval for a burden of illness study using UK primary and secondary care data, and delivered our first pro bono project as a division
— RWE
In 2021, we supported our clients across 28 different technologies (including devices and diagnostics), with our team members working collaboratively with every other division to provide comprehensive scientific support for our clients
— MedTech
We are thrilled to have closely collaborated with other Costello teams to deliver exciting projects in rare diseases during 2021. Highlights included working with our HTA Division to submit our first pan-country HTA submission and collaborating alongside our Health Policy Division on a multi-stakeholder roundtable to improve the transition between paediatric and adult care services
— Rare Diseases
On 1st October 2021 we launched our new Health Policy Division, formalising our experience in the delivery of a range of project types including white papers, consensus articles, policy roundtables and service evaluation reports
— Health Policy
We formed the Technical Innovation and Development division in October 2021 to expand our technical research and app development expertise
— Technical Innovation and Development
In 2021 we formalised our commitment to pro bono work by launching a division dedicated to delivering pro bono work
— Pro Bono
We continue to dedicate time to pro bono projects, in order to support non-profit organisations we care about:
100 team members
across the company supported and delivered pro bono projects
1,061 days
were spent working on pro bono projects across the year (more than double that of 2020)
31 non-profits
were supported through pro bono projects in 2021
Some of our pro bono partnerships from 2021
Trusted Partner
In our client feedback survey, we achieved the following average scores:
for customer service
for satisfaction with deliverables
98% felt our service was good value for money
We continue to support and grow existing partnerships:
The number of client projects completed increased
The average size of our projects increased by 9%
Our finance team celebrated our 10,000th sales invoice in 2021
True Experts & Thought Leaders
Annabel Griffiths, Head of Rare Diseases, completed a volunteering placement at the CGD Society as part of her sabbatical. Her 2-month placement enabled her to use her skills to contribute to the rare disease community on a number of projects including researching quality of life tools, supporting with the development of a multilingual website, and contributing to the charity's 30th Anniversary celebrations.
Costello Medical worked alongside Shiyu Children Foundation, a Chinese NGO that supports children with cancer, to co-develop a picture book on a young boy’s journey through cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery. We were delighted to be shortlisted as finalists in the “Pro Bono for Charity or Patient Organisation” category at the PM Society Awards 2021 for this book. For further details please see our portfolio.
Costello Medical have been developing a Patient Group Skills Programme for 8 patient organisations and charities that support rare diseases patients and families. The aim of the programme is to help organisations learn how to develop materials to better communicate with patients, funders, clinicians, and other stakeholders in the rare disease community.
Our Equality & Inclusion Taskforce has initiated 2 workstreams focused on community outreach in Cambridge and London:
London Community Outreach
We have and continue to support the Social Mobility Foundation Mentoring Programme. The programme consists of 9-months of one-to-one mentoring, involving emails, calls, and the opportunity to meet in person.
Since April 2021, we have been working with In2Science, a charity that aims to provide young people from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds an opportunity to gain practical insight into the STEM sector. Our support involves mentoring sessions and running a one-day work placement over the summer.
Cambridge Community Outreach
At the end of March 2021, the Cambridge Outreach team took part in a virtual careers fair hosted by Form the Future who work with a range of schools, colleges and sixth forms in Cambridgeshire.
We held our first work experience week in the summer for 12 students from the North Cambridge Academy (NCA). Students took part in structured workshops and sessions organised by staff at Costello Medical, with each student completing a week-long project. Following on from our successful collaboration, the NCA connected us with the Stephen Perse Foundation, an independent school in Cambridge focused on reducing inequality. From 2022, Costello Medical will be funding a placement at the Stephen Perse Foundation every year, covering the full 2 years of tuition and also providing mentorship and training.
Global & Connected
2 new divisions were launched including Health Policy and a team dedicated to supporting our Pro Bono work
Our Technical & Operational Support and Technical Innovation & Development in-house teams were formed to support the need for our growing internal and external technical expertise
Our US team in Boston doubled in size
In February 2022 we will open a new office in Shanghai
There were 3 global relocations from the UK to our Singapore and US offices
We welcomed 2 Global Health Interns to the company in 2021
Thank you!
We thank our employees for their continued commitment, and our clients for their ongoing loyalty and trust over the past year. We look forward to seeing what 2022 will bring!
If you would like to discuss your upcoming project needs with us please reach out via the relevant team member.