Department of Economics, Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Life Science Consultant, Faro, Portugal.
Front Public Health. 2024 Sep 19;12:1383107. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1383107. eCollection 2024.
Innovative medicines and vaccines can provide direct health benefits to patients and populations by preventing, treating and curing diseases, and also drive wider socioeconomic and productivity gains. However, researching and developing them is complex and risky. Funding for life sciences R&D has different sources: public, charitable/NGO, and private sector. We believe there is consensus that all are required, although there is less understanding about their respective roles, synergies, and funding priorities. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current life sciences innovation ecosystem in Europe, highlighting challenges for funding and innovation of new therapies and our proposed options to address these.
The basis of this paper stems from the reflections made by the co-authors during a webinar with title "Collaboration for new therapies: maximising funding and innovation," in March 2023, with further targeted literature reviews.
We identify eight challenges in the European life sciences ecosystem, some closely related, and nine options that we think might be helpful to address them. Each option on its own can have different levels of 'impact', but collectively will provide synergies among them, and thus maximize their impact.
It is critical to ascertain how the strengths of each actor can be leveraged to bring new medicines/treatments to market, quicker and more efficiently. We need a trusted environment, with strategic collaborations between the public and private sectors, and policy initiatives and incentives should be targeted to strengthen the infrastructure with the aim of fostering such optimal alliances.
创新药物和疫苗可以通过预防、治疗和治愈疾病为患者和人群带来直接的健康益处，同时也能带来更广泛的社会经济和生产力收益。然而，研发创新药物和疫苗非常复杂且具有风险。生命科学研发的资金有不同的来源：公共、慈善/非政府组织和私营部门。我们相信，人们普遍认为所有这些来源都必不可少，尽管对于它们各自的作用、协同作用和资金优先级的理解较少。本文的目的是概述欧洲当前的生命科学创新生态系统，强调新疗法的资金和创新面临的挑战，并提出我们解决这些挑战的建议。
本文的基础源于合著者在 2023 年 3 月以“新疗法的合作：最大化资金和创新”为标题的网络研讨会上的思考，以及进一步有针对性的文献综述。
我们确定了欧洲生命科学生态系统中的八个挑战，其中一些挑战密切相关，并提出了我们认为有助于解决这些挑战的九个选项。每个选项本身都可以具有不同程度的“影响”，但它们共同作用将产生协同效应，从而最大限度地发挥其影响。
确定如何利用每个参与者的优势将新药/疗法更快、更有效地推向市场至关重要。我们需要一个有信任的环境，公共和私营部门之间进行战略性合作，政策举措和激励措施应针对加强基础设施，以促进这种最佳联盟。
