Mr Lajoux, President of the LEEM

Four challenges to take up for 2009

1. The change of the pharmaceutical model at the heart of a repositioning of the research and production activities to the international level.
 
France must organize itself to adapt to a new organization of biomedical research. It is a question of capitalizing on the recognized quality of the French clinical research at early phase and to take care that the reform of the hospital, which should take place within the framework of HPST law, allows it. And, from this same point of view of facilitation of our change, we can only support the implementation of the law on the autonomy of the universities which will enable them to multiply the initiatives and to put forward their mark on the French and international scene.

2. The challenge of biotechnology, a corollary to that of individualized medicine. Biotechnologies have "invaded" the process of finding molecules. Between 2004 and 2007, 20% of medicines registered in centralized procedure were biopharmaceuticals. Thus it can be seen the strategic importance of the bioproduction of these products and the importance of having in France the production of these biopharmaceuticals and the production for preclinical and clinical batches to commercial.

 

3. The acceleration of public-private cooperation. We want to make our contribution to the ongoing reflection on the national strategy for research. We also make a point of intervening by concrete actions. “LEEM Recherche”, advanced platform joining together industrial and representatives of the public research, has already done much in this direction. It put forth proposals within the framework of the Cancer plan and the Alzheimer plan.
 

4. The partnership with the state. We must encourage the economy of the drug to maximize the innovation potential, economic, social and medical course. It is essential that the State understand that our industry needs a supportive environment to develop optimally, with counterpart contribution of the industry proposals and solutions to the crisis.