Every month, EUCOPE spotlights a member company and the great work they're doing to advance the life sciences industry and drive innovation to serve patients better. In June, we spoke with
Tell us about your organisation and its mission and how you drive innovation internally?
When
We believe that our teams should aim high; our company mantra is 'Challenge Accepted'. The attitude that sets our 1,800 employees apart is the thought of patients who are waiting for new innovations, often the first approved treatment, which can successfully treat their disease. Through continuous innovation and a commitment to harnessing the full potential of its technology,
How do your organisation's activities help patients now and into the future?
After overcoming seemingly insurmountable early challenges,
Across
More fundamentally, we believe we need to build a new social contract together with all healthcare stakeholders at large. This is why
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the life sciences industry today?
We are living in a golden age of medicine innovation, both for rare and prevalent diseases that present several public health challenges. New technologies being developed by companies in the biotechnology sector offer hope for previously 'undruggable' diseases, with dozens of new therapies gaining approval each year, and a steady stream of medical advances which offer the future potential for others. In addition, the response from the industry to the pandemic was fast, effective, and highly collaborative.
The challenge is to ensure that patients are able to access these innovative treatments. For biotechnology companies and those investing and delivering highly innovative therapies, ensuring that new medicines reach the patients who may benefit from them as soon as they're available has become increasingly complex in recent years. While the therapeutic potential of those new medicines is high, the uncertainty about their real-life value may also be high. Given the relatively high cost of these cutting-edge therapies compared to older ones, healthcare authority concerns over price and sustainability are exacerbated, which in turn can turn the process of securing reimbursement into a 'battle' between the different stakeholders.
Delayed or unequal access is a clearly unsatisfactory status-quo - so what is the alternative? Current trends at European or National level are more geared towards amending existing policies and regulations, with the intended (or not) effect of reducing the flow of innovation. Innovation should be the solution, not the problem. We all see today how disincentivising the development of antibiotics led us to a deadlock. Good science requires good policy, and we cannot assess tomorrow's medicines with yesterday's regulations. So perhaps, rather than tweaking the current system, we should go back to the drawing board and create something fit for purpose.
How is
This is why we are focusing our policy and market access efforts not just on negotiating new innovative agreements for
Another topic we are prioritising is to look at new ways in which the life sciences industry can play a role in supporting national health systems to use cutting-edge technologies to solve major public health issues such as chronic diseases. For instance, we very much believe in the concept of Population Health Approaches which redefine access holistically by creating public-private partnerships that combines R&D efforts, joint investments in infrastructure such as population databases and manufacturing consortia, and the rapid and large-scale rollout of innovative medicines in a sustainable healthcare system. We are actively working on identifying operational solutions to make Population Health Approaches a reality.
We know that making those concepts a reality isn't going to be easy as the current structures are very entrenched, but we believe that our future medicines can play a role in improving the health of society at large with the right policy environment. So the first step is to build strong partnerships across communities, businesses, local government and national health services so that we can thrash out the solutions together - at
What attracted you to join EUCOPE and how can we help you achieve your business goals?
Partnering with EUCOPE is a key part of our strategy to build on and develop additional productive working relationships, both at a regional and national level, to help us deliver on our business objectives and better serve patients.
Despite our ever-growing size,
One distinct feature of EUCOPE is its country and market access focus and expertise. Another one is its bottom-up approach and willingness to be innovation-driven before consensus-driven and allowing any of its members regardless of its size to bring forward an idea or project. Even for those members, such as me, that may skip a few meetings and emails ever so often!
For more information about EUCOPE membership
Visit our Benefits of Membership Page, or schedule an introductory call with our Business Development Manager
Contact:
1000 Brussels
T: +32 2 842 69 82
T: +32 2 842 69 83
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