Thursday, July 26, 2012

Big Pharma – big money injection is needed!


From here:

The European Commission is calling for views on its plans to establish a public/private partnership (PPP) in life sciences research and innovation.

Based on the success of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), the Commission is proposing to set up a life sciences PPP within Horizon 2020, its flagship, 80 billion-euro initiative which is set to run from 2014-2020 with the aim of establishing Europe's global competitiveness.


Discussing the reasons for its proposal, the Commission notes that the challenges facing the healthcare sector in Europe are very large, and include not only an ageing population and a concomitant rise in chronic and degenerative diseases, but also new infectious diseases and the spread of antibiotic resistance.

The pharmaceutical industry and the entire life science innovation ecosystem are also under increasing economic pressure, it adds. The time from a basic discovery to a new drug or vaccine becoming available for patients averages 10-15 years, and many important basic academic findings never enter the innovation cycle because of gaps in knowledge, lack of incentives or appropriate training or investments, particularly in the early stages of translation - the so-called "valley of death."


Despite the strong science base in Europe and promising research results, a number of barriers continue to discourage the private sector from translating research results into novel health services and products, not least being need for multidisciplinary solutions for medical problems, it notes, adding: "as a result, the innovative power of academia, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large companies is underused, and innovation processes falter and happen too slowly."


Yes, absolutely! Big Pharma has problems and desperately needs these €80b! Well, these money will come out from our (taxpayer's) pockets but this is another story

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