2023-09-06 14:41:00
“A medium and long-term strategy would be needed, a ‘Marshall plan’ for life sciences which, through close collaboration between the public and private sectors, would be able to get the best out of research, development, production, exports, and above all treatment and prevention for the whole population”. Thus Fabio Landazabal, president and CEO of Gsk Italia, commenting with time.news Salute on the White Paper ‘Increasing the attraction of foreign investments for the competitiveness of the Italy-system – What strategy for the pharmaceutical industry’, produced by The European House-Ambrosetti with Iapg (Association of Italian pharmaceutical companies with American capital) and Eunipharma, which brings together Italian pharmaceutical companies with European and Japanese capital.
“We need to review strategic issues and dynamics that will mark Italy’s progress and the possibility of improving its positioning among the key countries. And we must take into account the demographic change underway, the geopolitical and energy situation, without forgetting the impact, still to be discover, of artificial intelligence”, says the doctor and manager, who has been at the helm of GSK’s activities in Asia, the Americas and Europe for more than twenty years. On a demographic level, he observes, “the European population needs to lead an active and healthy life for longer, while in growing countries it is necessary to support training and health care so that they come out of the abyss of preventable diseases”. At an international level, continues the president and CEO of GSK Italia, “however today we are faced with a fragmentation of research, production and trade, following geopolitical changes. Among the large blocs formed by the United States, China, the Brics countries, in where India plays an outsider role, Europe runs the risk of being left behind on research, innovation and the economy”. In this regard, “energy, strategic raw materials, climate change and advanced information technology, including artificial intelligence – underlines Landazabal – can influence the foundations of the best industrial development plans. If we do not react immediately, Italy and Europe risk missing the train of innovation and economic independence”.
In the face of a complex picture, however, according to the head of GSK in Italy, it is possible to maintain cautious optimism, also starting from the data reported in the White Paper. “Italy is in eighteenth place for the attractiveness of foreign investments – he points out – has a GDP that grows more slowly than other European countries, an impressive public debt and stagnant research investments. But it has a pharmaceutical sector which is the first manufacturing in the country in terms of added value, exports and employment, it invests heavily in research with almost 2 billion euros, produces for 49 billion in value and exports for just under 48. And it is equivalent to 2% of the national gross domestic product, a figure that could rise dramatically , encouraging the role of a sector that has made it possible in 20 years to reduce mortality from chronic diseases by 40% and to bring the survival of one million cancer patients to 10 years”.
The invitation of the president and CEO of GSK Italia is therefore to “strengthen the National Health Service, starting from an aging population, but which wants and must remain healthy and active to allow the country to prosper. Innovative medicines and vaccines – recalls Ladazabal – have proven essential to achieve this result, as we have seen with pediatric vaccinations.By doing the same with adult vaccination with respect to influenza, Covid, Herpes zoster and respiratory syncytial virus, we could achieve significant savings in terms of care”. Specifically in the pharmaceutical sector, “in other countries – reflects the doctor and manager – the procedures are faster for making new investments, for checking and registering new drugs and vaccines, as well as for discovering and validating new ones. It would therefore be necessary a medium and long-term strategy, as mentioned in a Marshall plan for the life sciences, which thanks to close collaboration between the public and private sectors is able to get the best from research, development, production, exports, and above all from treatment and prevention for the whole the population”.
However, this dichotomy between systems and speed shouldn’t exempt every company from doing its part. “In the Siena research center – remarked Landazabal – we discovered vaccines against meningitis and we produce them all over the world together with other vaccines such as the one against shingles. We continue to invest in research even in some diseases neglected by Developing countries.For several years, a vaccine that we have developed against typhoid has been in use in Nepal.In addition, in Parma, we produce and distribute monoclonal antibodies and the most advanced antivirals worldwide for severe asthma, lupus, multiple myeloma, Covid, Hiv-Aids”.
Faced with a positive contribution for patients, doctors, the community and the Italian economy, the GSK Italia summit underlines the need for the sector to be accompanied “to take further steps forward, in the face of the national and global scenario. But I believe that knowing a problem well means having part of the solution already. In this sense – concludes Landazabal – I am optimistic”.
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