How is the EU boosting support for innovation in the health sector?
In this latest episode of Smart Health, we ask why Europe is lagging behind other countries when it comes to medical innovation, and find out what steps industry leaders are taking to turn the tide.
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00:00 This laboratory has opened its doors to new state-of-the-art therapies against cancer.
00:23 Some 200 people work in this lab on what's called cancer immunotherapy. Their objective
00:30 is to induce our own immune systems to recognize and eliminate tumor cells.
00:37 What we do is to stimulate the immune system, which is the body's set of defenses against
00:42 viruses, bacteria, but also against cancer. And we try to stimulate this immune system
00:48 so that in return it can take care of cancer, all cancers, whether leukemia, lymphoma or
00:54 solid tumors.
00:58 Founded in 1999, the company is developing a number of oncology treatments. One of them,
01:04 against lung cancer, is already in phase three of its clinical trials, not far now from its
01:10 final authorization.
01:12 Like in other European SMEs, innovation is the ultimate goal, but the road is long and
01:19 often winding.
01:23 The development of a medicine is a very long process, which in the best case can last around
01:29 ten years. It is an expensive process. A product that goes from the preclinical phase to the
01:37 market costs at least a billion euros. And finally, it's a risky process in the sense
01:43 that the failure rate is extremely high. Out of a hundred molecules selected, there are
01:49 four or five that make it.
01:54 This company is actively contributing to the some 37 billion euro annual research investments
02:01 and around 800,000 direct jobs that pharmaceutical innovation is creating in Europe. Yet the
02:07 European Union keeps losing ground against other innovative superpowers.
02:14 In an effort to turn the tide, the European Commission has proposed new regulatory incentives
02:27 so big medicine developers, SMEs and smaller actors find a more adapted, accessible, flexible,
02:34 simple and cost-efficient ecosystem to invest in.
02:41 For advanced therapy medicinal products, the reform also proposes providing the European
02:49 Medicines Agency with enhanced regulatory support. The agency is already improving its
02:54 tools to ensure that innovations translate into real products for patients, says its
03:00 director general.
03:02 We try to do some horizon scanning. That means we're looking to see what might be coming.
03:08 Are we ready for it? Is the regulatory system ready for it? Have we got the right expertise?
03:14 Is it something that is needed? Is it an unmet medical need? So we try and engage early with
03:19 developers. We try and point them in the right direction. So we do this through what we call
03:25 business pipeline meetings where we get a flavour of what's coming. We also have what
03:30 we call an innovation task force. We advise anybody with a new idea to come to us, talk
03:37 about it and we try and advise on what the right pathway is.
03:45 The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations says there is
03:49 indeed room for improvement. Its director general demands even bolder measures.
03:56 Already today we've lost about 25% of our R&D investment globally. Our global R&D investment
04:04 in Europe in the last 20 years has decreased by one quarter and it's gone to the US and
04:08 China. If we want to recover that we need to give investors the conditions of predictability,
04:15 of attractiveness and at the moment Europe is not there and that's very concerning because
04:21 where research happens matters because research means clinical trials, means patients getting
04:26 access straight away to medicines, it means the whole healthcare system getting used to
04:30 the new innovation.
04:32 Back at the laboratory, researchers hope their extensive efforts on a new treatment against
04:36 lung cancer will soon pay off.
04:40 We are in the final phase. We are testing the effectiveness of a molecule that we've
04:47 been producing for years on a very large number of patients. We expect the results in the
04:52 coming months but indeed it has been a long time coming.
04:55 (upbeat music)
04:57 you