This article is part of our special report Unleashing the biotech potential in health.
“We believe that the biotechnology sector, especially in the health sector, can be an element of great value for patients in relation to what is the ability to produce and generate valuable innovation in favour of the well-being and health of people, but it can certainly also be a great driving force for our economic system”.
Thus Professor Americo Cicchetti, Director of ALTEMS, High School of Economics and Management of Health Systems of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome inaugurated the conference “Biotechnologies in health: a roadmap for Italy”, promoted by ALTEMS, with the unconditioned contribution of Argenx and in collaboration with PPI- Public Policy Innovation, which was held in Rome at Palazzo Wedekind, under the patronage of the Ministry of Health and by Farmindustria.
“We have some fundamentals – added Professor Cicchetti – which are recognized as know-how. Our knowledge is absolutely huge, and our fourth place globally for publications ahead of giants like the US, China and the UK proves it”.
The conference aimed to show the benefits of biotechnologies in terms of therapies and development for the entire country system, in the face of impressive data in this sector: there are 344 companies operating in the sector of biotechnologies applied to health, half of the Italian biotech companies, a percentage that reaches 58 if we consider the realities dedicated exclusively to biotech R&D, which commit 75 percent of their total research costs to activities of this type.
This is highlighted by the BioInItaly 2022 report by Enea and Assobiotech, which traces a growth in the number of biotech companies: 790 companies surveyed in 2021. The overall turnover of these companies operating in the health sector has continued to grow incessantly for years: between 2014 and In fact, 2020 registered a growth of 158 per cent among the companies dedicated to biotech R&D with Italian capital. In 2021, the turnover of the biotech-health sector reached 7.5 billion euros, representing the most profitable area of the entire market.
The event was divided into two moments, one dedicated to the prospects of the policy on the sector, particularly relevant in view of the birth of the new government; and a second sector in which experts and representatives of some of the main public and private players in the country’s biotechnology field discussed the state of the art and the prospects for biotechnological innovations. In the first part, Beatrice Lorenzin, Coordinator of the Democratic Party Health Policy Thematic Forum met Elisa Pirro of M5S and Annamaria Parente, Healthcare Manager of Italia Viva.
Several points of convergence in the three interventions, from the need to support research in the field of biotechnology with adequate resources, up to that of considering this sector as a field of national interest and intervention, removed from particularistic and parochial logic. In the second part of the conference, entitled “What is needed to make Italy the main biotechnological pole”, the strengths and weaknesses of the biotechnology sector in our country clearly emerged, which certainly has several areas of excellence, but also suffers from difficulties related to the allocation of resources and also to the consideration of funds assigned to research and biotech application solutions not as investments, but as current expenses of the health system without taking into consideration the economic damage avoided to the country system with the aforementioned solutions.
On these points – the event was moderated by Marco Frittella, director of RAI Books – Andrea Grignolio, professor of History of Medicine and Bioethics at the Vita-Salute S. Raffaele University in Milan and CNR researcher, Giorgio Palù, AIFA President, Marcello Cattani, Farmindustria President, Silvia Chiroli, CM Argenx, Annarita Egidi, Member of the Presidency Council Federchimica Assobiotech, Giovanni Leonardi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, Leonardo Giagnoni, CEO of Italian Angels for Growth, Marco Baccanti, General Manager Enea Tech Biomedical, Eva Pesaro, Vice President of UNIAMO (Italian Federation of Rare Diseases), Renato Mantegazza, Director of the Clinical Research and Development Department of the Besta Neurological Institute, Carlo Ferro, President of the ICE Agency.
In particular, Andrea Grignolio opened the works of this round table by reconstructing the fundamental moments of the evolution of biotechnologies and related knowledge, an evolution that has resulted in being able to “treat autoimmune diseases, cancer, be able to reconstruct tissues” effectively incredible. Results that for AIFA, underlined Giorgio Palù, must be implemented and carried even further, at the country level with: “a central booth, to identify priorities, where to involve resources, otherwise these are dispersed in a thousand streams and at this point the regionalization it certainly could not do any good to a development of the kind that needs to be thought of centrally”.
“Resources that must be invested with a broader horizon”, for Marcello Cattani, that in addition to research takes into account complementary sectors such as industry and education: “culture and education must accompany – declared Cattani – this great innovation, so that it is understood first of all and then valued”. An innovation that took shape in the intervention of Silvia Chiroli who gave the example of Argenx who “was born in 2008 in Belgium, based on a very innovative discovery of antibody engineering, a basic research. But already in the minds of those who founded it there was the will to pursue three aspects, on which a path can also be built for Italy.
The first was the will to influence society; then there was the method that Argenx still has, for which the people involved have the philosophy of always being students, always being in a position to listen and learn, seeking the collaboration of universities and universities; the third element was the will to be global, not stopping either in the Belgian world or in the European world. All this has guaranteed a successful path”.
The example of Argenx echoes the successes of the biotech sector in Italy, as highlighted by the data reported by Annarita Egidi, who recalled how “our researchers are in third place for the number of awards obtained by the European Research Council” and how for clinical trials, a recent AIFA report showed that in 2021 Italy grew by 1.7 percent in the number of trials presented and authorized.
A context in which, obviously, the role of the public decision-maker is fundamental. In this regard, Giovanni Leonardi, representing the Ministry of Health, recalled how the Ministry “worked with both the Ministry of Economic Development and that of the University to try to have a common direction in the activities” of the sector; “Attempts not always easy” especially as regards the connections between the public and the private sector, but which in any case aim at the creation of a real integrated and efficient “health ecosystem”.
It is precisely the role of the private sector in financing the biotech sector, in particular in the early stages of the birth of new corporate experiences, which was at the center of Leonardo Giagnoni’s speech, who recalled the risks associated with financial transactions aimed at the early stages of development. of new solutions, but added that “the risk is part of this area.
This risk must be balanced with the opportunities that in Italy come from those specific sectors where the country is strongest, such as biotech “. A point taken up by Marco Baccanti, who illustrated the applications of the mandate for economic development in the life sciences that Enea Tech Biomedical is pursuing and will further carry forward based on the country’s availability of PNRR resources: “touching all the critical and weakness of the system “.
It is obvious, however, that no prospect, neither that of research, that of finance, that of industry, nor that of public intervention can make sense without taking into account the patients to whom the final result of the biotech supply chain is intended. Particularly relevant, therefore, is the intervention of Eva Pesaro who recalled that: “the raw material for any project is the patient. First of all, there is the life of the rare sick patient. ” Even considering that there are “about 30 million rare disease patients in Europe. And only 5-6 percent of rare diseases have treatment opportunities. Very often rehabilitation treatments that allow a dignified life but are not at all decisive. “
“In this context – she added – biotechnologies and their perspectives must overcome all those obstacles, even of a regulatory nature, that prevent the return on investments from reaching the homes of patients”. Precisely those patients who in particular need “precision medicine” as Renato Mantegazza has made clear, for which it is no longer acceptable to carry on “a huge bla bla” in the sector, of which “we talk too much” without an adequate concrete commitment in particular of politics.
Lastly, Carlo Ferro recalled the importance of the life sciences sector for the country’s exports, given that by adding together the exports of the “pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, we make 47 billion at a value of 20/21, 47 billion which are 9 per cent of Italian exports. ”Numbers that once again confirmed the importance of this sector for our country and the need to strengthen exchanges and synergies between stakeholders, as occurred on today’s meeting”.