| France
must take advantage of the biotechnology revolution
to take lead and capture a share of the growing market
for biological drugs, the French drug industry organisation
LEEM has urged. To
achieve this, LEEM has put forward five main proposals
for the 2002-2015 period under the Biomedicaments
2010 initiative aimed at boosting France's biotechnology
sector and attracting inward investment to France.
'Biopharmaceuticals
are increasingly important in pharmaceutical innovation,'
states LEEM in its Biomedicaments report. 'By 2010,
between 87 and 137 drugs issued from biotechnology
should be available to patients. Biomedicine will,
by then, represent 12 per cent of the global drug
market, some 100 billion dollars in turnover. This
growth, which will exceed 14 per cent a year, will
entail quadrupling the production capacity of biopharmaceuticals
that currently exist worldwide,' adds LEEM.
According
to LEEM, this prospect opens an opportunity for France,
namely attracting by 2010 the biopharmaceutical production
sites that will have to open in order to respond to
global demand. France could structure around this
industrial development an efficient and competitive
French biotechnology network, believes the organisation.
LEEM's
first proposal is for lifesciences and nanosciences
to be made an absolute priority in research and development
(R&D). With this objective in mind, LEEM recommends
that the new Agence Nationale de la Recherche (National
Research Agency) should spend 60 per cent of its budget
(one billion euro a year) on the life sciences, as
well as nano- and biotechnology.
Secondly,
says LEEM, France needs two or three biopoles - biotechnology
centres of excellence - linking academic, clinical
and private sector research to attain critical mass
in keys areas. LEEM envisages a life science centre
in the Paris region and one for nanosciences in Grenoble.
In parallel, LEEM recommends that government introduce
tax credits for researchers working on the development
and production of biologics.
The
third recommendation is to establish a national fund
to sustain and support the first clinical trials of
biopharmaceuticals products in France.
The
fourth recommendation concerns the setting up of financial
mechanisms to help with the investments needed for
the establishment of new biomanufacturing plants.
Finally,
LEEM recommends launching a national strategic plan
to boost recruitment and training in the biotech sector.
LEEM
also notes that France is one of Europe's largest
drug producers, but has only six biopharmaceuticals
plants. While the establishment of effective national
biopharmaceutical production will mobilise considerable
investment (between 250 and 300 million euro per production
unit), it could, on the other hand, generate almost
3,500 jobs over ten years, half of which would for
highly qualified scientists.
'An
immediate and sustained effort is needed if France
wants to raise to the challenge in an extremely competitive
sector and be once again a major player in the biopharmaceutical
sphere,' the report concludes.
To
read the full report (in French), please visit:
http://www.extranet.leem.org/UploadPublic/2004/versionrésumée.pdf
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