John Cannings, OAM, is a retired lawyer and consultant having been involved in the Health and Pharmaceutical sectors for over 30 years, including as an investigator/quality assurance partner on a number of R&D projects for the Federal Department of Health & Ageing.
John was diagnosed with ALK positive NSCLC in 2014 which led to him making a private submission to Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) for the listing of a targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This resulted in him also appearing before a Senate Inquiry into access to new, innovative and specialist cancer drugs in Australia. Since being diagnosed John has been involved in a number of community and patient projects and representing patient views and perspectives including whilst as a Director of Rare Cancers Australia and as a working group member of Involve Australia.
John is particularly interested in the future potential for genomics and proteomics for both the diagnosis and treatment options for cancer; and is currently a consumer representative with Australian Genomics, NSW Health’s Genomics Steering Committee and ProCan.
With TOGA John wants to ensure that consumer priorities and perspectives are reflected in each stage of the research and he is a member of the Advanced NSCLC working group. John has also recently joined the IASLC’s Patient Advocates Committee for the 2025-2027 term and is undertaking the 2025 IASLC Scholars program.
John was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2010 for services to the community and has 2 children and lives in Sydney, Australia.
