New deal supports French pharma and biotech
pharmafile | December 1, 2009 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing |Â Â France, biotechÂ
The French government has agreed a new deal with industry leaders to help the country’s pharma and biotech industries.
President Sarkozy invited pharma industry leaders to the Elysee Palace to sign the new package of measures designed to make the country a more competitive environment for the sector.
Sarkozy told the industry leaders that a wave of patent expiries and other pressures meant that the next five years could be the toughest ever period for the industry, but added that France regarded the life sciences sector as a key part of the ‘knowledge economy’ which would deliver future prosperity.
The Strategic Council for Health Industries (CSIS) is the forum for interaction between the government and the pharma industry, and endorsed three key government objectives.
These are to develop the biotech sector, support the pharma industry and improve public health; to develop partnerships public-private partnerships in biomedical research in France, and to preserve and development pharma and biotech manufacturing in the country.
Biotech funding
The help for the biotech sector comes in the shape of a joint 139 million euros investment fund called the Strategic Investment Fund (ISF).
The fund will be financed to the tune of 52 million (representing 37% of the total) and two thirds by nine pharma companies including Sanofi-Aventis and GSK, who will each contribute for 25 million euros each. This money will then invested in sums around 5-10 million euros in small innovative biotech companies in France, with the joint investment fund always remaining a minority shareholder.
France has about 400 medical biotech companies, but like biotech elsewhere in Europe and the world, the sector has been hit hard by the credit crunch. The crisis has cut funding from venture capitalists, which had previously supported the sector.
President Sarkozy said the government would set up up to five ‘university hospital institutes’ (IHU).
To be launched in 2010, IHUs will be centres of excellence in care, research and teaching in specialist areas of medicine. The President also promised to reform business taxes to entice further investment. However Sarkozy said that the pharma industry had to accept that generics were a fact of life, and an important industry in its own right.
André Choulika, President of France Biotech, welcomed the announcement of a dedicated biotech fund, but said the sum of 140 millions euros would not go far. He said the fund appeared to be geared towards supporting pharmaceutical development, rather than biotech development. “If we want to maximise our chances of success, the amount pledged is insufficient when one considers that over 60% of new medicines on the market today are biotech.”
He stressed that the sums involved were small for big pharma players. “We need to bear in mind that 140 million represents only 10 days of R&D for a major pharmaceutical company,” he said.
THE DEAL’S AIMS:
1. Creation of biotech investment fund
2. Strengthen employment and training
3. Reinforce anti-counterfeiting measures
4. Double partnership research in the biomedical field within three years
5. Make the National Alliance for the life sciences and health a focal point
6. Increase development of biomanufacturing capacity
7. Open up the biotech subsidiary of the French Laboratory of Fractionation and Biotechnology
8. Support manufacturing
9. Improve monitoring of drug sales to exporters
10. Develop tools related to epidemiology
11. Improve access to treatment.
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