It is a pleasure to introduce this report on the activities and impact of the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation (CHEPI) at Imperial Business School. In many ways, CHEPI exemplifies how our School leverages its position within one of the world’s great STEMB institutions to bring science to humanity—an imperative that lies at the heart of Imperial’s mission.
CHEPI is not only a leading centre for health economics and policy research but a dynamic hub that connects the Business School to the wider scientific ecosystem of Imperial. Its work sits at the intersection of rigorous economic analysis, cutting-edge behavioural and data science, and the pressing real-world challenges of improving health systems and population wellbeing.
This report highlights the breadth of CHEPI’s contributions over the past two years: from shaping policies on nutrition, taxation and non-communicable diseases, to pioneering new models for pandemic preparedness and healthcare productivity. It also underscores the Centre’s success in securing major European and international grants, strengthening our global partnerships, and supporting the next generation of researchers.
I am immensely proud of CHEPI’s achievements and of the talented faculty, researchers and students who drive its success. As we look ahead, we remain committed to growing our impact at the critical nexus of business, science, and health—helping to translate world-class research into healthier societies.
With best wishes,
Prof. Peter Todd Dean Imperial Business School
There are many reasons to be proud of what CHEPI has achieved over the past academic year, as readers will be able to gauge by browsing through the pages of this report. As with every year, we celebrate a fantastic group of distinguished and dedicated staff and students, whose work continues to place CHEPI at the forefront of health policy and health economics research, in the UK and internationally.
CHEPI remains the most research-active Centre of Imperial Business School, funded by research grants from the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States. Our mission is to produce research that is relevant for policy, and that is able to influence the national and the global health policy agenda. To achieve this, we have strengthened our co-creation capabilities, as well as our networks with stakeholders that legitimately play a part in the policy process. This has made CHEPI a go-to Centre for research in policy areas such as health taxes, pharmaceutical innovation, food and obesity, health labour force, health care productivity, and others.
One notable sign of the international recognition of CHEPI’s work on the economics of non-communicable diseases is the Centre’s participation in two EU Joint Actions, arguably Europe’s largest ever investment in preventing and addressing these diseases, despite the UK not participating in the EU4Health programme. Our policy simulation capability, through CHEPI’s flagship model Health-GPS, is central to our participation in these Joint Actions as well as to other projects run by the Centre.
A key highlight of the past academic year has been our conference on ultra-processed food, which looked at the science of UFP and its application into national and international policy. In collaboration with the Imperial Policy Forum and the School of Public Health, we brought together leading international figures from academia, government and the third sector. The success of this conference contributes to Imperial’s and CHEPI’s increasingly prominent role at the forefront of policy research on UPF and reflects our strengths on the global stage. We are hoping to make the conference a regular event, aimed at breaking silos in addressing UPF and enabling greater research collaborations.
Looking forward, CHEPI is ideally placed to be a driving force for new cross-faculty initiatives at Imperial that are designed to address large-scale research questions. The four Schools of Convergence Science were launched in June 2025, and we look forward to the opportunities to extend our collaborations, both within the University and beyond, that the Schools will bring, especially those focusing on Health and technology and on Climate, energy and sustainability.
As ever, the CHEPI team continues to deliver quality work which is reflected in the strength of our research publications, listed in this report. Congratulations are due to CHEPI’s Faculty members Laure de Preux and Esma Koca for their well-deserved awards this year in recognition of their work on integrity, good citizenship, inclusion and collaboration. CHEPI has strengthened its modelling capacity by welcoming two expert software engineers to the team; Daniel Laydon joined us from Imperial’s School of Public Health, where he played a key role in modelling the impacts of public health interventions during the Covid-19 pandemic, and Mahima Ghosh joined us through our staff exchange programme with Bocconi University. We also welcomed new research staff, Arianna Gentilini, Haokun Pang, Viktorija Kesaite and Zeyu Qiu, while we said goodbye to Nalinda Wellappuli, Cristina Taddei and Bernardo Andretti, who have made great contributions to CHEPI’s work while with us.
CHEPI’s work is a true team effort, and everyone deserves full credit for all the work showcased in this report.
Prof. Franco Sassi
Centre Director, CHEPI
Faculty
Prof. Franco Sassi
Centre Director, Professor of International Health Policy & Economics
Impacts of public policies to tackle major chronic diseases and their predisposing risk factors, including poor nutrition physical inactivity, alcohol and tobacco use, environmental and social determinants, physical inactivity, alcohol and tobacco use.
Prof. James Barlow Professor of Technology & Innovation Management (Healthcare)
Adoption, implementation and sustainability of innovation in healthcare systems.
Dr. Sam Burn
Assistant Professor in Economics and Public Policy
Using public policy to improve equity of access to health care and health outcome; interaction of the public and private sectors in financing and provision of healthcare
Prof. Katharina Hauck Professor in Health Economics (School of Public Health)
Economics of HIV/AIDS, the impact of epidemics, the evaluation of health interventions, and the role of behaviour in the transmission of infectious disease.
Dr. Esma Koca Lecturer in Analytics and Operations, Deputy Academic Director, Full-Time and Weekend MBA
The interface between the industrial organization, operations management, and marketing with a special focus on the digital economy.
Prof. Marisa Miraldo
Academic Director, Global Health Management MSc / Professor of Health Economics
Determinants of innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, determinants of the adoption and diffusion of innovation and the impact of policy and regulation on pharmaceutical firms’ strategies.
Prof. Anita Patel
Imperial College London
Provost’s Visiting Professor
Evaluation of stroke rehabilitation and mental healthcare
Dr. Pedro Rosa Dias
Associate Professor of Health Economics
Health economics in developing countries, inequalities in health and healthcare and the effects of educational policy on health outcomes.
Dr. Reza Skandari
Assistant Professor of Health Operations
Optimising healthcare design decisions, ranging from treatment plans to health policies.
Dr. Laure de Preux
Associate Professor of Economics
Determinants of health, the evaluation of climate change related policies, and the impact of climate and pollution on health and the healthcare sector
Prof. Dame Carol Propper
Professor of Economics (DBE, FBA) International Fellow, NAM,
President of the Royal Economic Society
Impact of incentives on the quality and productivity of healthcare, the effect of market incentives on the production of public services and the impact of environmental factors on health.
Research staff
Dr. Bernado Andretti Research Associate
Dr. Grazia Antonacci Research Fellow
Arianna Gentilini Research Assistant
Dr. Jingmin Zhu Research Associate
Professional staff
Mahima Ghosh* Research Software Engineer
Dr. Daniel (Danny) Laydon Advanced Research Fellow
Dr. Viktorija Kesaite Research Associate
Dr. Mario Martinez-Jimenez Imperial Research Fellow
Dr. Mariia Murasheva* Research Associate
Dr. Chuanzi Yue Research Associate
Dr. Zoey Verdun Research Associate
*Exchange with Bocconi University
Dr. Jack Olney Executive Director
Lorraine Sheehy Centre Administrator Heather Lodge Project Coordinator
Honorary staff
Dr. Annalisa Belloni Lead Economist, Cancer Research UK
Dr. Tim Lobstein Director of Programmes, International Association for the Study of Obesity
Prof. Mario Mazzocchi (Honorary Visiting Professor)
Professor of Economic Statistics, University of Bologna
Dr. Karen Watson Communications and Public Policy consultant
Our research
CHEPI has a distinctive research agenda focused primarily on the economics of public health and international health systems. CHEPI’s work is typically based on rigorous interdisciplinary research methods that bring together economic analysis, behavioural science, epidemiology and policy modelling to address pressing global health challenges.
In the field of public health economics, CHEPI is at the forefront of applying behavioural insights to understand and influence the drivers of individual behaviours that contribute to the development and transmission of both communicable and noncommunicable diseases. Key areas of work in this respect include evaluating population-wide as well as individual-based policies to improve nutrition and diet quality in order to reduce obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other chronic NCDs.
CHEPI also leads in research on fiscal incentives— such as taxation and subsidies—to promote healthier choices in areas including diet, alcohol and tobacco consumption, and environmental sustainability.
CHEPI’s strengths in international health systems research are reflected in its comparative analyses of system performance, pharmaceutical pricing, and innovation.
Underpinning its research is CHEPI’s growing capacity and capabilities in modelling policy outcomes. CHEPI continues to develop its open source, policy microsimulation tool, Health-GPS, to capture the complex relationships between risk factors and diseases to estimate policy impacts on health outcomes and economic costs. Health-GPS supports many of the research projects described in this report.
Global challenges of obesity, nutrition and NCDs
CHEPI is currently active in five international projects assessing a variety of approaches and policies to improve nutrition and reduce the health and economic burdens of obesity and other non-communicable diseases.
CHEPI leads a work package within the European Commission-funded CoDiet project, looking at the health impacts of nutritional policies implemented in six EU states. The WP6 team examined the policies in a report in summer 2024 and concluded that interventions focusing on
tackling school meals, sugar sweetened beverages and foods high in fat, salt and sugar are likely to have the greatest effects. The health impacts of these policies will be modelled using CHEPI’s policy microsimulation tool, Health-GPS. Over the past year, Health-GPS has been extended so that it can model the role of dietary factors in 39 non-communicable diseases. The developments to Health-GPS have been documented in a technical report which also outlines the complex pathways between dietary risk factors and disease.
Visit the project at: https://www.codiet.eu/
JACARDI is a Joint Action of the European Union that supports European countries in reducing the burden of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, at both individual and health system levels. It unites 142 evidence-based pilot projects in 18 EU countries, with supporting evidence of improved cardiovascular diseases and diabetes prevention and management. CHEPI is engaged in JACARDI in collaboration with Italy’s Bocconi University. The Centre’s contribution includes the following:
1. Developing a methodological framework for the multi-dimensional assessment of JACARDI’s pilot projects. In collaboration with the CeRGAS team at Bocconi University, CHEPI co-developed a comprehensive framework for the multi-dimensional assessment of pilot interventions. The framework focuses on six dimensions: effectiveness, patient experience, cost effectiveness, equity and diversity, implementation and process outcomes, and sustainability.
2. Supporting pilot teams. The joint CHEPI-CeRGAS team provides training and support to JACARDI’s pilot projects for the multi-dimensional assessment of those projects.
3. Data analysis and model-based simulations. CHEPI will model the long-term impacts of selected pilot interventions.
The Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes in South Asia project is funded by NIHR to assess policyand community-based actions to reduce the burden of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The team published its first paper from the project this year which reports on compliance with differing zoning regulations that limit the sale of tobacco and alcohol
close to an educational institution in five settings across four countries. With the project about to begin its final year, further outputs are planned to look at factors such as physical activity, incomebased inequalities in risk factors of NCDs, and inequities of preventive care services. Visit the project at https://www.ghru-southasia.org/projects/ policy-and-environmental-interventions/
Work began in February 2025 on the European Commissionfunded project looking at the biological, socio-cultural and environmental risk trajectories of obesity (OBCT). Among the project aims are plans to deliver countryspecific trends in obesity, a digital atlas of showing how environment contributes to obesity, and an assessment of the impact of policies to address obesity on inequalities. CHEPI is contributing to two work packages with researchers currently collating data to inform the decision on which policies and countries should be modelled. Visit the project at: https://www.obct.nl/
Healthy taxation
CHEPI has continued its work on healthy taxation with a new project underway, two projects now in their final stages, a policy brief with WHO Europe that will be launched in September 2025, and submission of evidence both to the Government review of the soft drinks industry levy and to the House of Commons Health & Social Care Committee inquiry into food .
In 2025, CHEPI was awarded the contract to deliver the policy modelling element of the European Commission-funded Joint Action on Cancer and other NCDs Prevention (JA PreventNCD). CHEPI’s contribution will be part of a work package on government regulation and taxation. Over the next two years, CHEPI will be modelling the health impacts of policies on tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods and drinks across the EU. Visit the project at: https://preventncd.eu/
The NIHR-funded Fiscal Incentives for Consumer Health (FINCH) project has run for just over three years and looked at a range of potential taxation scenarios to encourage a switch to healthier food choices. Early results show a decline in the purchase of foods high in fats, salt and sugar
of between 7%-16.5%. Alongside this, small increases in the purchase of fruits and vegetables could be achieved with the application of subsidies. Most significantly, the results suggest that any financial burden from such taxes is modest with those on the lowest income experiencing minimal increases in food expenditure. Commenting on these initial findings, Prof. Sassi said that taxation options are expected to generate important reductions in the incidence of major diet-related diseases but that changes in VAT alone are unlikely to make a meaningful difference to the quality of people’s diets.
The results are currently being assessed and will be written up for peer review publication over the next six months. CHEPI delivered the project in partnership with the Centre for Microsimulation and Policy at the University of Essex, the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Bologna, and the Food Foundation who coordinated the public engagement element of the project.
A modelling study funded by Resolve to Save Lives to estimate the potential health and economic impacts of taxing foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) in India is also in its final stages. While prevalence is lower than in the UK, obesity is rising in India. Using the latest 2022-23 nationally representative household expenditure survey data, the research team at CHEPI estimated consumer responsiveness to food price changes and the short-term impact of applying the highest general sales tax (GST) rate to HFSS foods on nutrient intake, food expenditure, and tax revenue. They used Health-GPS, a micro-simulation tool developed at CHEPI, to model longer-term policy impacts on disease incidence, disability-adjusted life years, and associated health expenditure. Results show that the taxation of HFSS foods could mitigate rising diet-related diseases and morbidity in India, reduce healthcare costs, and represent an important source of revenue for the government. The study will be available shortly as a peer-reviewed publication and an interim working paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.06.25323478
Building on work with the WHO Europe Nutrition Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG), CHEPI developed a policy briefing paper on food taxes with the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization. The policy brief was launched on 5 September 2025 and is available at: https:// www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/WHOEURO-2025-12466-52240-80320
Innovation and productivity
Over the past year, the research team on the Health Innovation Next Generation Payment & Pricing Models (Hi-Prix) project has compiled a report on the comparative effectiveness of policy mechanisms on pharmaceutical innovation. The report assesses both the novelty of innovations and equity, as measured against the burden of global disease. In June 2025, Dr. Chuanzi Yue presented the work at the third Hi-Prix consortium meeting in Lisbon as well as at the International Health Economics Association congress in July 2025.
Environment and health
Dr. Yue speaks about his role on the Hi-Prix project at: https://youtu.be/RErDDl2tlGI Visit the project at: https://hiprixhorizon.eu/
In addition to the European Commission-funding for Hi-Prix, Dr. Yue and Prof. Miraldo have been awarded funding by the Leverhulme Trust and British Academy to extend Hi-Prix in more detail. The additional grant enables the assessment of the impact of centralised procurement mechanisms on pharmaceutical innovation incentives. The grant runs from January 2025-April 2026 and comprises an econometric study with data from EU joint procurement initiatives.
Amid the current syndemic of obesity and climate change, little is known about the effect of extreme temperatures on dietary behaviour. Using exogenous daily variations in weather and a nationally representative consumer panel in the US, we focus on the consumption of empty calories found in sugary drinks.
We find that extreme heat increases the volume of sugary drinks purchased, with the effect being stronger among individuals most vulnerable to heat stress. We explore various channels, including changes in shopping habits, inter-channel substitution, retailers’ price adjustments, and long-run adaptation to historical heat exposure.
Our findings suggest that climate change may hinder progress in reducing sugary drink intake in the US. This study aims to inform policymaking to promote healthier diets under climate change, particularly in contexts already grappling with an obesity epidemic. It will be submitted for publication shortly.
Global preparedness
The Jameel Institute-Kenneth C. Griffin Initiative for the Economics of Pandemic Preparedness was launched in October 2022 and runs until November 2027. This is a major interdisciplinary research programme in collaboration between the School of Public Health and the Business School that builds on the research that was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Award. Prof. Marisa Miraldo leads on the Business School contribution. CHEPI will be working with the Jameel Institute, Imperial College London School of Public Health, the World Health Organization, Singapore’s PREPARE program, and Umeå University in Sweden.
Over the past three years, the team at the Business School has developed several working papers on the role of human behaviour in (i) shaping pandemic trajectories, and (ii) influencing optimal vaccination allocation. The team is also currently working on surveys and experiments to calibrate epidemiologic-economic models and inform policy as well as adding a behaviour change parameter to a live dashboard ahead of its launch at the end of 2025. Two team members also participated in the Workshop on the Economics of Pandemic Preparedness in Stockholm in June 2025 which was co-organised by the Jameel Institute at Imperial and Umeå University. Visit the project at: https://www.communityjameel.org/centres/jameel-institute-kenneth-c-griffin-initiative-foreconomics-of-pandemic-preparedness
Maxime Roche at Maastricht University presenting his work on climate and the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages Photo: Laure de Preux
Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance
On 10 October 2024, the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance was launched formally at its inaugural annual conference. The event brought together over 100 senior stakeholders from government, industry and academia to explore strategies for strengthening the UK’s competitive advantage in key technology-driven sectors, including medtech, biopharmaceuticals, telecommunications and data science, aerospace, tidal power, and fine chemicals. Since then, work has focused on developing a comprehensive evidence base to evaluate the productivity of the UK biopharmaceutical sector.
The research team has secured, and further enhanced, a proprietary dataset comprising detailed information on:
• Grant data linked to these drug–indication pairs;
• Policy incentives for pharmaceutical innovation.
The dataset spans 42 countries from 1980 to the present. This resource enables rich analysis by incentive type, drug pipeline history, companies, countries, and other relevant dimensions.
Ongoing analyses examine transition probabilities between pipeline stages, time durations for progression, and the frequency of R&D events at each stage. A particular focus is placed on assessing whether the integration of digital health technologies and artificial intelligence tools - including natural language processing and machine learning - is associated with improvements in the efficiency and productivity of drug development.
An adjunct study, conducted with Prof. Pierpaolo Andriani of KEDGE Business School explores drug repurposing as an emerging market and area of technological innovation. To support this analysis of technology exaptation (the re-use of existing innovations for new therapeutic purposes), all clinical trial activities in the dataset have been classified according to whether they involve exapted drugs.
In collaboration with the University of Sussex (led by Prof. Michael Hopkins), additional work is being undertaken to identify factors contributing to the leakage of economic returns from UK-based life sciences innovation. The analysis is focusing on:
• The licensing of academic assets to overseas firms or, in some cases, the failure to license t hese assets at all.
• The early acquisition of promising products, or entire companies, with significant growth potential, resulting in the offshoring of valuable capabilities.
Visit the project at: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/sectoral-economic-performance/
Prof. James Barlow speaking at the launch of the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance
Photo: Arianna Gentilini
New Initiatives
Two major initiatives have been established in the past year which involve leadership from CHEPI.
Imperial Schools of Convergence Science
Prof. Marisa Miraldo has been appointed as one of the four co-directors to lead the new School of Convergence Science in Health and Technology. Four Schools of Convergence Science have been established to encourage cross-discipline innovation and develop large-scale responses to societal challenges. The Health and Technology School brings together business, engineering, physical sciences, life sciences and medicine to develop innovative ways of addressing the big health and healthcare challenges. At the formal launch of the Schools in June 2025, Prof. Miraldo spoke of the possibilities for reimagining health and developing new solutions that are currently untapped.
The new schools aim to reshape research so that it integrates innovation across scientific and technological boundaries. As part of this, Prof. Miraldo was invited to participate in the launch of a joint technology initiative between Imperial and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France. The new partnership was inaugurated by President Emmanuel Macron at Imperial College London during his state visit to the UK in July 2025.
Learn more about the Health and Technology School of Convergence Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGAnX5ZcrJc
Imperial Health Economic Evaluation
Led by the Provost’s Visiting Professor, Anita Patel, a new initiative was launched on 18 June 2025 to facilitate collaboration on economic evaluation across the University and its clinical partner, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Research funders are placing an increasing importance on including economic evaluation in research projects. This has led to a growing need to identify and connect with the range of expertise available to researchers within the Imperial family.
The Imperial Health Economics Evaluation Collaboration aims to bring together health economists with those wishing to incorporate economic evaluation into their research proposals. The Collaboration will have dedicated leadership and a central point of contact to enable an agile response to support grant proposals or provide methodological advice. Sixty people attended the initial workshop to highlight examples of the breadth of economic evaluation work currently being conducted in Imperial, discuss information needs, and to look at how collaboration would work in practice. Further details: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/imperial-health-economic-evaluation/support/
President Macron at Imperial during his state visit to the UK 9 July 2025 Photo: Marisa Miraldo
Launch of the four Schools of Convergence Science June 2025
Photo: Dave Guttridge
Prof. Anita Patel launches the Imperial Health Economics Evaluation Collaboration
Achieving Policy Impact
Achieving policy impact is a prime driver for CHEPI’s research and the Centre engages actively with the Imperial Policy Forum to further strengthen connections with policymakers.
The scope for government action on ultra-processed food
On 26 November 2024, CHEPI, the Imperial School of Public Health and the Imperial Policy Forum convened an international conference to discuss the scope for government action to regulate ultra-processed foods. This high-profile event was led by a multidisciplinary team of expert speakers from academia, policy, and civil society, including Dr. Kevin Hall (NIH), Dr. Mathilde Touvier (INSERM), and Dr. Francesco Branca (WHO).
Proceedings were expertly moderated by the BBC food journalist, Sheila Dillon. The talks looked at the growing evidence for the harmful effects of UPF, experience from South America in developing a regulatory response, and particular concerns around the marketing of UPF and procurement of school meals. Legal expertise highlighted potential powers that are currently under-used.
The conference was particularly pleased to welcome Baroness Walmsley, chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on Food, Diet and Obesity. Lady Walmsley and the conference moderator, Sheila Dillon, discussed the findings of the Committee’s very timely report RecipeforHealth:aplantofixour brokenfoodsystem, published a few weeks prior to the conference. CHEPI Director, Prof. Franco Sassi, provided oral and written evidence to the Committee’s inquiry.
Clinician and BBC broadcaster, Dr. Chris van Tulleken closed the conference with a call not to lose the momentum generated during the day’s discussion and to reconvene regularly to assess progress.
This conference proved to be CHEPI’s most successful event to date. 167 people registered to attend in person with a record 75% attending on the day. Over 350 people also participated online. The audience reflected the widespread interest in the subject with participants coming from academia, government, third sector advocacy organisations, clinical, international agencies, industry, media, and the general public. The conference recording is also one of CHEPI’s most watched outputs, attracting 3000 views in the following three months.
Catch up with the event at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdG24uCkvbE
Baroness Walmsley speaking to the conference. Photo: Barry Sheehy
Chris van Tulleken summarising the conference Photo: Barry Sheehy
Dr. Kevin Hall and Dr. Mathilde Touvier answer questions from the conference moderator Sheila Dillon. Photo: Barry Sheehy
Communicating CHEPI’s Research
Prof. Dame Carol Propper gave keynote addresses at the 24th Journées Louis-André Gérard-Varet in Marseille in July 2025 on medical labour and financial incentives and at the CESInfo Venice Summer Institute in June 2025 on digital access, healthcare and health outcomes. Prof. Propper also presented her work on the impact of NHS pension reforms on workforce supply at the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence conference in London in May 2025 and the Econometric Society Australasian meeting in December 2024.
In September 2024, Prof Franco Sassi was invited to Oxford to speak at the 9th UK conference on obesity as part of a symposium in collaboration with the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe on The future of obesity policy: international perspectives. Prof. Sassi presented an overview of taxes on unhealthy foods and the process of developing food tax policies.
Conference presentations are crucial for early careers researchers, both to build an all-important network of global connections and to share the results of their research internationally.
Dr. Mario Martínez-Jiménez and Dr. Chuanzi Yue each made several presentations at the biennial world congress of the International Health Economics Association, held in July 2025.
Dr. Elisa Pineda presented her review of the effectiveness of health taxes on foods high in fat, salt and sugar in November 2024 at the Área de Derecho Financiero y Tributario in Seville.
Dr. Mario Martínez-Jiménez was awarded the prize for the best public health presentation at the 43rd Spanish Economic Association conference in June 2024. Dr. Martinez spoke about his work on food taxes and the effects on nutrition quality.
Seminars and workshops
CHEPI researchers participated in a variety of seminars and workshops during the year. For example:
In June 2025, Dr. Haokun Pang presented his results from modelling health and inequality during pandemics at the Workshop on the Economics of Pandemic Preparedness held at Umeå University in Stockholm.
In March 2025, the Institute for Social and Economic Research invited Dr. Mario Martínez to lead a seminar discussing his work on the impact of economic crises on mental health in retirement. In February 2025 Dr. Martínez was invited to present his work at the Centre de Recerca en Economia Salut in Barcelona on early life conditions and children’s adaptive behaviour.
In January 2025, Prof. James Barlow was a panel member on the Westminster Policy Forum event, discussing the next steps for the life sciences industry in the UK.
In September 2024 Prof. Marisa Miraldo was a panel member of the Natural Sciences Research Showcase at Imperial College London to discuss lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Presentation of Best Public Health paper to Dr. Mario Martínez-Jiménez at SESPAS conference 2024
Prof. Sassi and co-presenters, WHO obesity symposium, September 2024
Sharing CHEPI’s expertise 2024-25
CHEPI’s staff provide regular interviews to a wide variety of national and international media as well as providing expert input to scientific committees. This section presents a selection of the advisory work undertaken by CHEPI in the past year.
CHEPI researchers contribute to a range of Parliamentary inquiries, political briefings and international agency events as these arise. In February 2025, CHEPI submitted evidence to HM Treasury in response to its consultation on the soft drinks industry levy. On 20 November 2024, Prof. Franco Sassi spoke to the European Parliament Sub-committee on Public Health about childhood obesity in the EU to mark the 35th anniversary of the UN convention of children’s rights. The proceedings are available at: https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/ en/webstreaming/subcommittee-meeting-on-public-health_20241120-1500-COMMITTEE-SANT
Prof. Sassi was invited to speak at the WHO Europe nutrition meeting in June 2025 on ultra-processed foods. Prof. Sassi and CHEPI PhD candidate Maxime Roche also contributed to the WHO Europe Sugar and Calorie Reduction Network, speaking at its meeting in London in March 2025.
Media coverage of CHEPI’s research provides public opportunities for researchers to comment on their findings. In June 2025, TheTimes ofIndia profiled the work led by Prof. Miraldo which found multiple violations of the ban on tobacco sales within 100 yards of educational institutions in both Chennai and Delhi. Also in June 2025, Prof. Barlow participated in a MarketplaceEurope programme from CNN, speaking about support for the use of AI in the delivery of health care.
In March 2025, the EU Research & Development Information Service profiled a report from the CoDiet project that assessed the extent to which national dietary policies had been implemented across Europe. Prof. Sassi commented on the difficulty of evaluating policies that are not monitored frequently. Early findings showed the most impacts arising from policies tackling school meals, sugary drinks and foods high in fat, salt and sugar.
In March 2025, the BBC Science Focus magazine looked at the impacts of weight loss drugs on obesity. Prof. Sassi addressed the prohibitive cost of such drugs and the detrimental impact that reliance on a drug-based approach to treating obesity would have on government policies on prevention.
In January 2025, Prof. Marisa Miraldo spoke to Yahoo News about the potential for significant impacts on health from climate change, including an increasing prevalence of infectious diseases. Prof. Miraldo warned of the unpredictable demand on healthcare services because of extreme weather events.
In October 2024, Prof. Sassi was quoted in a piece by EuroNews looking at the effects of the minimum unit price of alcohol in Scotlan. Prof. Sassi raised the need for warning labels on beer, wine and spirits in addition to MUP in order to tackle the ingrained nature of alcohol consumption.
In September 2024, Medscape News looked at the latest research on the benefits of the UK’s tax on sugary drinks. Prof. Sassi added that such taxes are now among the most evidence-based policies to encourage healthy diets.
In August 2024, Prof. Miraldo and Dr. Elisa Pineda spoke to SouthAsiaTimes about their investigation into food policies in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka which identified the need for better food labelling, taxes on unhealthy foods, and healthier school meals.
Prof. Sassi speaking to the EU Parliament Subcommittee on Public Health
Our Programmes
MSc Global Health Management
The redesigned MSc in Global Health Management was launched in September 2024. Students are now able to specialise in one of three tracks: Management, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, or Economics & Data Science. This significant development has enabled students to explore subjects outside the Business School. For example, three modules were run for the first time by the Dyson School of Design Engineering: Design Psychology,FromDatatoProduct, and Introduction toDesignwithBehaviouralScience while the School of Public Health taught modules on Commercial Determinants ofHealth and HealthPolicyand PopulationHealthAnalytics with additional elective opportunities to explore digital health. The MSc is currently ranked in the top nine healthcare management programmes in Europe.
Faculty awards 2024-25
Congratulations to the following members of Faculty for achieving awards during the past year:
Dr. Esma Koca for the Teaching Excellence award in the category of online teaching and for the Dean’s Award for Collaboration.
Dr. Laure de Preux for the Dean’s Award for Integrity and Dean’s Award for Good Citizenship for her work as a taskforce lead on equality, diversity and inclusion.
Executive Education, Academic Leadership, and Healthcare Leadership Development
Prof. James Barlow leads the DigitalTransformation inHealthcare:Innovation,Strategies,andProcesses course within the Executive Education programme. This nine-week online course runs six times a year with over 150 participants in 2024/25.
James is also a tutor on the Academic Health Science Centre Foresight Leadership Programme and the Imperial College & Corndel Healthcare Leadership Development Programme.
Doctoral programme
Congratulations to CHEPI doctoral students Petya Atanasova, Narges Mohammadi and Zhengnan Zhu who were both awarded their PhD in 2025, respectively, at Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine and Imperial Business School.
Imperial Business School offers 15 fully-funded PhD places each year, for which there is fierce competition. A number of doctoral students choose to conduct their research within CHEPI. Current students are listed here.
Natalia Kovalevskaya
Innovation, sustainability, and equity in Italian school meals to improve menu practices, nutrition education, and regional dietary disparities .
Faculty of Medicine student
CHEPI supervisor: Prof. Franco Sassi
Maxime Roche
Essays on the drivers of unhealthy dietary choices.
Business School student
CHEPI supervisors: Prof. Franco Sassi and Dr. Laure de Preux
Shutian Liu
Nature, nurture, and unequal trajectories: testing gene-environment interactions in health inequality
Business School student
CHEPI supervisor: Prof. Franco Sassi
Jiajia Zhan
Digital innovation in healthcare delivery. Business School student
CHEPI supervisor: Prof. Dame Carol Propper
CHEPI’s researchers are also encouraged to apply for personal research fellowships to progress their careers. In 2024/25 CHEPI PhD alumnus Dr. Petya Atanasova was awarded an Imperial Research Fellowship. These highly-prized awards enable early careers researchers to pursue their own research projects over a four-year period and include the opportunity to spend up to 12 months as a visiting scholar in another institution, either in the UK or internationally.
Global use of CHEPI’s outputs
CHEPI’s outputs are widely cited. Although the UK has been the largest user of CHEPI’s research over the past twelve months, international government organisations such as the WHO, World Bank, OECD and the European Union also make use of the work in their policy documents.
1 shows the global distribution of policy-making organisations who cited CHEPI’s work during 2024-25.
Figure
CHEPI-Affiliated Publications
Journal Articles
1. Adnan A, Irvine RE, Williams A, Harris M, Antonacci G. (2025) Improving acceptability of mHealth apps: the use of the technology acceptance model to assess the acceptability of mHealth apps: systematic review. JournalofMedical Internet Research 27: e66432 https://doi. org/10.2196/66432
2. Andretti B, Vieites Y, Elmor L, Andrade EB. (2024) How socioeconomic status shapes food preferences and perceptions. JournalofMarketing https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429241296048
3. Andretti B, Vieites Y, Ramos GA, Elmor L, Andrade EB. (2024) Underestimations of the income-based ecological footprint inequality. ClimaticChange 177: 66 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-024-037190
4. Athauda L, Verdun Z, Atanasova P, Ahmad S, Ahsan A, Hossain M, Loomba M, Pradeepa R, Rajakaruna V, Kaluarachchi M, Kasturiratne A, Khawaja KI, Mridha MK, Katulanda P, Jha V, Anjana RM, Chambers JC, Frost G, Sassi F, Miraldo M (2025) Compliance to tobacco and alcohol zoning regulations around schools in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka using environmental mapping data. BMCMedicine 23: 307 https://doi. org/10.1186/s12916-025-04148-1.
6. Foglia E, Asperti F, Antonacci G, Jani YH, Garagiola E, Bellavia D, Ferrario L. (2024) Automated Drugs Dispensing systems in hospitals: a health technology assessment (HTA) study across six European countries. ClinicoEconomics and OutcomesResearch 16: 679-696 https://doi. org/10.2147/CEOR.S468417.
7. Furst R, Goldszmidt R, Andrade EB, Vieites Y, Andretti B, Ramos GA. (2024) Longitudinal attenuation in political polarization: evidence from COVID-19 vaccination adherence in Brazil. Social ScienceandMedicine 348: 116783 https://doi. org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116783
8. Goiana-da-Silva F, Sá J, Cabral M, Guedes R, Vasconcelos R, Sarmento J, Morais Nunes A, Moreira R, Miraldo M, Ashrafian H. (2024) The Portuguese NHS 2024 reform: transformation through vertical integration. FrontiersinPublic Health 12: 1389057 https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpubh.2024.138905
9. Goiana-Da-Silva F, Guedes R, Malcata F, Sa J, Cabral M, Vasconcelos R, Costa S, Moreira, R., Fonseca, F., Alves, J., Miraldo M, Nunes AM, Ashrafian H, Darzi A, Araújo F. (2025) Addressing bureaucratic burdens of value-based healthcare: the Portuguese National Health Service experience. Healthcare 13: 821 https://doi. org/10.3390/healthcare13070821
10. Gressier M, Frost G, Hill Z, Li D, Olney J, Pineda E, Targett V, Young M, Sassi F. (2025) The effectiveness of mandatory v. voluntary food reformulation policies: a rapid review. British JournalofNutrition 133: 737-750. https://doi. org/10.1017/S0007114524001326
11. Gressier M, Frost GS, Hill Z, Li D, Olney J, Pineda E, Targett V, Young M, Sassi F. (2025) Supplyand demand-side drivers of the change in the sugar density of food purchased between 2015 and 2018 in Great Britain. BritishJournalof Nutrition 133: 725-736 https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0007114524001806.
12. Guerrero-López CM, Serván-Mori E, Jan S, Downey L, Heredia-Pi I, Orozco-Núñez E, Muradás-Troitiño MDLC, Norton R. (2024) Gender disparities in lost productivity resulting from non-communicable diseases in Mexico, 2005-2021. JournalofGlobal Health (May 31): 14:04121 https://doi.org10.7189/ jogh.14.04121.
13. Halstead FD, Pinjuh G, Antonacci G, Proudlove N. (2025) Reducing laboratory delays in blood culture pathogen identification: a quality improvement project. BMJOpenQuality 14: e003153 https://doi/. org/10.1136/bmjoq-2024-003153.
14. Hidefjäll P, Laurell H, Johansson J, Barlow J (2025) Institutional logics and the adoption and implementation of remote patient monitoring. Innovation:OrganizationandManagement 27: 96-115 https://doi.org/10.1080/14479338.2022.21 62907
15. Li D, Gressier M, Hill Z, Olney J, Targett V, Young M, Sassi F. (2025) Modelling the potential impact of food taxes based on nutrient and energy content in the UK: a simulation study. BritishJournalof Nutrition 133: 751-762
16. Li C, Zhu J, Shan L, Zhou Y, Liu G, Zhu H, Wu Q, Cui Y, Kang Z. (2024) Impact of medical insurance access negotiation on the utilization of innovative anticancer drugs in China: an interrupted time series analysis. BMCHealthServicesResearch 24: 90 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-10393-y.
17. Lodwick SJ, Antonacci G, Proudlove N. (2024) Time is a terrible thing to waste: optimising use of intraoperative monitoring practitioner time towards maximising in-house IOM service provision and reducing spend on external provision. BMJOpenQuality 13: e002492 https:// doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2023-002492
18. Martínez-Jiménez M, Brinsden H, Sassi F. (2025) Are food taxes for healthy eating acceptable? A survey of public attitudes in the UK. BMJ PublicHealth 3: e001731 https://doi.org/10.1136/ bmjph-2024-001731
19. Martínez-Jiménez M, Hollingsworth B, Zucchelli E. (2024) Socioeconomic deprivation, health and healthcare utilisation among millennials. Social ScienceandMedicine 351: 116961 https://doi. org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116961 .
20. Martínez-Jiménez M, Hollingsworth B, Zucchelli E. (2025) Austerity and waiting times: evidence on reproductive health care delays among young millennials in deprived areas. PublicHealth 242: 111-116 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2025.02.027
21. Omar N, Powell RA, Williams A, Antonacci G, Moses M, Harris M. (2025) Suitability of natural fish skin for UK burn wound treatment: a systematic review and narrative synthesis. InternationalJournalofSurgeryGlobal Health 8: e00532 https://doi.org/10.1097/ GH9.0000000000000532
22. Perera S, Ramani S, Joarder T, Shukla RS, Zaidi S, Wellappuli N, Ahmed SM, Neupanef D, Prinjai S, Amatyaj A, Rao KD. (2024) Reorienting health systems towards primary health care in South Asia. LancetRegionalHealthSoutheast Asia 28: 100466 https://doi.org/10.1016/j. lansea.2024.100466
23. Pineda E, Bouzas C, Arroyo M, Martínez JA, Tur JA. (2025) Priorización de políticas alimentarias en España mediante el Índice Food-EPI de entornos alimentarios saludables: panel de expertos. RevistaEspañoladeSaludPública 97: e202309076 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ articles/PMC10560527/
24. Pineda E, Ortega-Vélez MI, Preciado-Rodríguez M, Saucedo-Tamayo S, Caire-Juvera G. (2024) Dietary patterns, cooking methods and breast cancer risk in Mexico: an exploratory case-control study. Nutrition and Health 30: 349-359 http://doi. org/10.1177/02601060221119260
25. Pineda E, Gressier M, Li D, Brown T, Mounsey S, Olney J, Sassi F. (2024) Review: Effectiveness and policy implications of health taxes on foods high in fat, salt, and sugar. FoodPolicy 123: 102599 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102599
26. Pineda E, Li J, Li D, Brown T, Bhatia T, Walker IF, Olney J, Sassi F. (2024) Lessons on food security from the COVID-19 pandemic in Bermuda. PLOS GlobalPublicHealth 4: e0002837 http://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002837 .
27. Pineda E, Atanasova P, Wellappuli NT, Kusuma D, Herath H, Segal AB, Vandevijvere S, Anjana RM, Shamim AA, Afzali S, Akter F, Azizi F, Guptaj A, Abdullah A, Hanif A, Hasan M, Jayatissal R, Jham S, Jhan V, Katulandao P, Khawajap KI, Kumarendranq B, Loomba M, Mahmood S, Mridhah MK, Pradeepag R,Aarthig GR, Tyagir A, Kasturiratnes A, Sassi F, Miraldo M. (2024) Policy implementation and recommended actions to create healthy food environments using the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI): a comparative analysis in South Asia. LancetRegionalHealthSoutheast Asia 26:100428 https://doi.org/10.1016/j. lansea.2024.100428 .
28. Roche M. (2025) Can differentiated value-added tax rates promote healthier diets? The case of Costa Rica. FoodPolicy 131: 102824 https://doi. org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102824
29. Yue C, Miraldo M. (2025) Medicare negotiations could fuel, not stifle, innovation. Health AffairsForefront https://doi.org/10.1377/ forefront.20250116.482319
Preprints
1. Bhattacharya A, Mark-Uchendu C, Hansen C, Evans J. (2025) Systematic review investigating mHealth and digital health interventions for increasing vaccination uptake in 19 SubSaharan African countries: recommendations for the malaria vaccine rollout. medRxiv 2025.04.24.2532627 https://doi.org/10.1101/2025. 04.24.25326272
2. Laydon DJ, Smith DL, Chakradeo K, Khurana MP, Okiring J, Duchene DA, Bhatt S. (2025). Climate change and malaria: a call for robust analytics. medRxiv 2024.09.16.24313623 https://doi.org/10.1 101/2024.09.16.24313623
3. Mohammadi N, Rosenberg AJ, Izumchenko EG, Pearson AT, Skandari MR. (2025). Computationally optimized ctDNA surveillance for recurrence detection in HPV-positive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. medRxiv 2025.01.07.25320131 https://doi.org/10.1101/2025. 01.07.25320131
4. Roche M, Zhu J, Olney J, Laydon DJ, Joe W, Sharma M, Steele L, Sassi F. (2025). Taxation of foods high in fat, sugar, and sodium in India: a modelling study of health and economic impacts. medRxiv: 2025.03. 06.25323478 https://doi.org/1 0.1101/2025.03.06.25323478
5. Scheidwasser N, Poulsen LL, Leow PR, Khurana MP, Iglesias-Carrasco M, Laydon DJ, Donnelly CA, Bojesen AM, Bhatt S, Duchene DA. (2024). Deep learning from videography as a tool for measuring E. coli infection in poultry. bioRxiv 2024.11.20.624075 https://doi. org/10.1101/2024.11.20.624075
Dataset
1. Martinez-Jimenez M, Sassi F. (2025) UKFood Combineddataset:statisticalmatchingofthe LivingCostsandFoodSurveywiththeNational DietandNutritionSurvey,2018-2019. London: Imperial Business School Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation https://beta. ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/ study?id=9369
2. Martínez-Jiménez M, Sassi F. (2025) UKFood: userguideforLCFS-NDNSmatcheddataset. London: Imperial Business School Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation https://doc. ukdataservice.ac.uk/doc/9369/mrdoc/pdf/9369_ uk_food_user_guide.pdf
Working papers
1. de Preux L, Miraldo M, Rizmie D. (2024) Sweet dreams are made ofthis: the co-benefit ofa pedestrianisationpolicyinParisonsleep. Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 24/12 York: University of York Health, Econometrics and Data Group. https://www. york.ac.uk/media/economics/documents/hedg/ workingpapers/2024/2412.pdfSegal A,
About CHEPI
The Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation was established in 2017 under its current Director, Professor Franco Sassi. It is hosted by the Department of Economics and Public Policy within Imperial Business School.
CHEPI aims to research and analyse incentives and environments that encourage individuals, organisations, business, and government to improve people’s health.
Over the past five years, CHEPI has become the most research-active centre within the Business School, attracting £15m in grant money during that period.
CHEPI has four pillars of operation:
• Research
• Teaching
• People
• Relations
CHEPI specialises in national, European and international research in public health economics and policy. Over the past few years CHEPI has developed a particular emphasis on food, nutrition, and obesity.
CHEPI researchers have also been active in investigating the economic impacts of Covid-19 and continue to explore pandemic preparedness.
Our funders
Grateful thanks for funding our research this year go to:
