Here are the next challenges for the pharmaceutical industry
Who was there and what was said during the annual Farmindustria assembly, chaired by Massimo Scaccabarozzi
A moving memory for the victims of covid-19 and for those who, due to the pandemic, were unable to get adequate treatment. This is how the annual Farmindustria assembly opened, an event held at the Auditorium della Conciliazione partly in presence and partly remotely. The assembly was attended by the ministers of Economic Development Giancarlo Giorgetti (Lega), of Health Roberto Speranza (Leu) and of Regional Affairs Mariastella Gelmini (Forza Italia).
Farmindustria Assembly: the data of an expanding sector
Over 34 billion euros : this is the 2020 production value of the Italian pharmaceutical industry, at the top of Europe together with France and Germany. The sector recorded significant growth thanks to exports which marked + 74% between 2015 and 2020 with a 50% increase in the average values of exported drugs. The internal market, on the other hand, is compressed and in decline. The bare figures of Pharma exports speak of +14 billion, equal to two thirds of the total of the country. In 2020, the year of the covid-19 pandemic, pharmaceutical companies invested 3 billion euros in Italy : 1.6 in research and development (+ 14% in the last five years) and 1.4% in production. The sector employs 67,000 people, 90% of which are graduates or high school graduates and 6,750 are in R&D, of which over half are women with a boom of 16% of those under 35 in the last 5 years.
Giancarlo Giorgetti: "The road to autarchy is impassable"
"We pay a low attractiveness for investments also because of the complex regulation". This was said by the Minister of Economic Development Giancarlo Giorgetti , the first to speak during the annual Farmindustria Assembly. “Skills are not enough, we also need a regulatory environment that makes our environment attractive otherwise we will lose many opportunities”. The minister also gives a jab to those who, perhaps to the whole of his party and for propaganda purposes, say they want to follow the path of autarchy. An impractical choice when it comes to scientific research . “We cannot think of following autarctic policies. The supply chain unfolds in an international environment – says Giorgetti -. We need to understand at which point of the production chain to place ourselves because there are positions with more or less added value ".
Massimo Scaccabarozzi: "Stop bureaucracy and spending ceilings"
Farmindustria president Massimo Scaccabarozzi indicated the priorities for the production sector: "Act quickly with adequate investments in pharmaceuticals and use all available resources, eliminate the heavy bureaucratic complexities that afflict the sector, adapt governance to the novelties and innovations of the drug and to international competition, recognize the patent protection of which cancellation is unexpectedly requested in recent months – said Scaccabarozzi during the report to the public assembly of the association – In particular, the obsolete system based on spending ceilings must be overcome, taking into account of the contained costs in the whole treatment process while today we are stuck to old rules that do not recognize the overall therapeutic value ".
11 billion vaccine doses available at the end of 2021
Scaccabarozzi spoke of the efforts made to counter the Covid-19 pandemic: “ At the end of 2021 the doses of Covid vaccine will be produced . An unthinkable figure for an unknown disease until just over a year ago, which today represents a realistic goal – says the president of Farmindustria -. Italian pharmaceutical companies have given their full contribution with a view to partnership during the pandemic and today they are ready to invest an additional 4.6 billion in Italy over three years, in production and research, with easily buildable projects that could bring 8,000 new ones. jobs only in our companies. We are at the top in Europe together with France and Germany and this is largely possible due to the quality of human capital available in our country. To be able to continue investing and growing ".
Italy ready with excellent projects also on monoclonals
Not only vaccines in the basket of Italian innovations but also research on monoclonal drugs, remarked the president Scaccabarozzi who recalled that in the next 6 years “ 1,500 billion dollars will be ready to be invested in research in the world from 2020 to 2026. The value of almost 7 Pnrr . I believe that we must feel the full responsibility of attracting them as much as possible to our country ”. Italy is involved in the production phases of several anti-Covid vaccines. “We have excellent projects for monoclonal antibodies from Italian companies, multinationals and in partnership with each other – underlined Scaccabarozzi -. The country is part of the international antiviral manufacturing network and is at the forefront of biomedical publications, rapid tests and clinical studies. And it is also a research and production center, with real global centers of excellence for many pathologies: oncology, new generation antibiotics, plasma-derived products, products covered by patents that have made it possible to bring the entire supply chain back to Italy, immunotherapies, orphan drugs, innovative mRna technologies, insulin and antidiabetic products, injective and sterile products, innovative drugs against heart failure or hepatitis, non-covid vaccines made more effective by adjuvants, aseptic drugs, innovative active ingredients ".
Roberto Speranza: "It's time to simplify and de-bureaucratize"
Health Minister Roberto Speranza also accepted the monumental Italian bureaucracy that would hinder the speed of the reform process. "Today we have the obligation of reforms that the country has been waiting for too long , starting with the revision of a planning model of health expenditure still organized in closed silos – says the minister speaking at the Public Assembly of Farmindustria 2021 -. A model of a time that no longer exists and that we must definitively put behind us. Roofs and paybacks must be overcome we are in another phase it is the time of great change , it is time to simplify and de-bureaucratise where possible, to understand where to really invest ".
The pandemic is not over
The Minister of Health, stopping to speak with journalists at the end of the Assembly, also spoke about the state of the Italian vaccination campaign. “ Every day we are over 500,000 doses administered . We must insist on this path ”said Speranza. The minister commented on the British choice to go ahead with the openings despite the spread of the delta variant. “ We have chosen a line since April 26, which is a line of gradualness and prudence and of taking step by step with great caution. And this line has borne fruit – added the minister -. There is a considerably better picture than what we have known in the previous months but we must keep our guard up. The pandemic is not over, we must have great prudence and attention especially for the variants which are elements of further concern in a framework that must be followed with great attention ”.
Maria Stella Gelmini: "Running with vaccinations for the next school year"
Also present at the annual assembly of Farmindustria was the minister for regional affairs and autonomies Maria Stella Gelmini . “I am here to express the Government's gratitude to the Italian pharmaceutical industry – says the Minister of Forza Italia -. The very rapid implementation of vaccines does justice to positions of mistrust towards science , now we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of an Italian vaccine and on this the Government is committed to winning this challenge, we want to enhance the public-private relationship especially when the latter invests in research and I agree with the idea of excluding health expenditure from the Stability Pact and from European constraints ”. The minister stresses how essential it is to complete vaccinations both among the elderly and among the youngest in order to restart with the next school year in attendance: " we must run in view of the reopening of the school ", concludes the minister.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/ecco-le-prossime-sfide-dellindustria-farmaceutica/ on Thu, 08 Jul 2021 13:51:35 +0000.