Ray Avery (scientist)
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Sir Raymond John Avery (born 1947) is a New Zealand pharmaceutical scientist, inventor, author and social entrepreneur in Mount Eden, Auckland, New Zealand.


Personal life

Avery was born in Kent, England. After spending his childhood in orphanages and foster homes, he has said he developed an interest in science at the age of 14 while sleeping rough in London and finding warmth in public libraries.New Zealander of the Year Awards
He now mentors young people, speaking regularly at schools and universities. He was later educated at Wye College, a tertiary agricultural college in Kent. He settled in New Zealand in 1973 and became a New Zealand citizen within nine months. In 2010, Avery published his autobiography ''Rebel with a Cause'', which charted his life from childhood in English orphanages and foster homes to knighthood.One Kiwi's determination to make a difference
. ''Scoop''. 29 July 2010.
Avery announced in August 2022 that he was moving to Australia, citing societal reasons, including high rates of bullying, domestic violence, gang violence, and obesity, the high cost of living, institutional racism in healthcare and education, a "broken" hospital system, and opposition to a proposed fund-raising concert for the Lifepod at
Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...
.


Career

After graduating, Avery worked as an analyst in laboratories, in which he eventually took a shareholding. After leaving Britain and settling in New Zealand, he was a founding member of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the
University of Auckland School of Medicine The University of Auckland's Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences (formerly known as ''The University of Auckland School of Medicine'') was established in 1968 at its present site in Grafton, Auckland. Prior to this, the University of Otago ...
. He was then the technical director of
Douglas Pharmaceuticals Douglas Pharmaceuticals Ltd is a New Zealand-based manufacturer of pharmaceutical products. Founded in 1967 by West Auckland chemist Graeme Douglas, the company started out distributing prescription medicines, before manufacturing and later succ ...
, where he developed and commercialised pharmaceutical and nutritional products. In the 1990s, as Technical Director of the
Fred Hollows Foundation The Fred Hollows Foundation is a non-profit aid organisation based in Sydney, Australia, which was founded in 1992 by eye surgeon Fred Hollows. The foundation focuses on treating and preventing blindness and other vision problems. It opera ...
, Avery designed and commissioned two intraocular lens manufacturing facilities in
Asmara, Eritrea Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The ...
and Kathmandu, Nepal. Avery worked with other members of the team to develop replacement equipment when it became apparent that the manufacturing equipment originally commissioned by the foundation was not suitable. In 2003, Avery founded an organisation focussed on international development, Medicine Mondiale, which he described as dedicated to making quality healthcare and equipment accessible to even the poorest developing nations around the world. It was registered as a charity in New Zealand in 2008 and is also known as the Sir Ray Avery Foundation. In 2009, Avery received a World Class New Zealand Award in the Life Sciences category. Avery is a co–founder of Jupl NZ Ltd, a medical technology company.


Projects


Acuset IV flow controller

The Acuset is a small device designed to control the flow of drugs through an intravenous (IV) drip. It was designed to simplify administering drips and to be used in developing countries without adequate medical care. In 2008 the Acuset was a finalist in the Saatchi & Saatchi World Changing Ideas Awards. In December 2019 it was reported by ''
Newsroom A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editors, and producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournalists, videojournalists, associate editor, residence editor, visual text editor, Desk Head, s ...
'' that clinical trials at Auckland City Hospital in 2008 showed that the Acuset was not more accurate than an existing device called a "roller clamp" which was already used widely in developing countries. The findings were subsequently published in a medical journal in 2015. Avery's position, set out in the article, was that the trials "did not reflect normal usage" of the Acuset and used an earlier version of the product. Avery subsequently made a complaint to the New Zealand Media Council against ''Newsroom'' for reporting on the study and on allegations that he had sought the retraction of the study's findings. The complaint was not upheld by the council, which concluded that the ''Newsroom'' article "contained no inaccuracy in relation to its key message of a threat to suppress publication of the results of tests relating to a device used to control intravenous drips, and indeed the complaint is not directed against that key message". The Council noted that it was "made clear in the article that the test was on an earlier device, not the device currently marketed, and Sir Ray Avery's version of what has happened is set out in the article". The council was also clear that in its decision it was not commenting on the merits of the earlier version of the Acuset, the current Acuset or the research studies that had been carried out.


Lifepod incubator

The Lifepod is an
incubator An incubator is anything that performs or facilitates various forms of incubation, and may refer to: Biology and medicine * Incubator (culture), a device used to grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures * Incubator (egg), a de ...
developed by Medicine Mondiale with the goal of being low-cost, warm, sterile and robust, and suitable for distributing in poorer countries. As of July 2018, 4.5 million had been spent in development including 2 million raised from public donations. Avery apologised in 2018 for not being clearer to donors about the progress of the work. In November 2018 the Department of Internal Affairs conducted a review after a complaint was made, and concluded it was satisfied that donations were being used properly, although it urged the foundation to consider "updating the public regarding the status of the LifePod incubators and managing their expectations as to when they will be most likely to be ready for delivery to Fiji". In March 2019 it was reported that the Lifepod would begin hospital trials in India in July, but this did not eventuate. Little has been heard about the project since late 2019.


Infant and child nutrition products

Avery's agency Medicine Mondiale developed the infant formula "Proteinforte" for the treatment of protein-energy malnutrition. The agency also developed a nutritional bar called the "Amigo Bar", based on
amino acids Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...
, which are intended to be distributed in New Zealand schools to supplement children's diets through a for-profit social enterprise business.


Books

Avery has published two books: the best-selling Autobiography ''Rebel with a Cause'' charting his life from street kid to Knighthood and ''The Power of Us'' The Power of Us
Beattie's Book Blog
celebrating New Zealanders who dare to dream.


Honours

Avery has received awards including:


References


External links


Medicine Mondiale Official Website

Medicine Mondiale Official Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avery, Ray 1947 births Living people English emigrants to New Zealand 20th-century New Zealand businesspeople 20th-century New Zealand inventors New Zealand scientists People from Mount Eden Knights Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit People from Kent Alumni of Wye College