2024-08-02 08:00:00
Attract investment, increase France’s competitiveness and support future projects. It is these reasons that guide the institution Innovation Health Authority (AIS) since its establishment in November 2022. The program, which consists of approximately 15 individuals, oversees advances in biotechnology, medical technology and digital health, with the mission of supporting and accelerating projects. Interview with its General Manager Lise Alter.
L’Usine Nouvelle – health innovation agency established at the end of 2022.
Liz Alt – We are making good progress. In the Health 2030 component, €2 billion of the total €7.5 billion has been invested. A total of 300 projects were submitted. We provide truly personalized support to new companies and continue to call for initiatives in four priority areas within the framework of France 2030: biomedicine and bioproduction, emerging infectious diseases and NRBC risks. [nucléaire, radiologique, biologique et chimique, ndlr], digital health and innovative medical devices. For project support requests, we can now guarantee a one-hour meeting within 15 days.
On the bioproduction axis, this is approximately 50% of the committed program scope. We also take strong action in biomedical research, accelerating academic research, market entry and industrialization, and creating the prevention field. We have also contributed to the creation of 5 bioclusters, 12 new university hospital institutes and 22 chairs of excellence. We are really committed to accelerating the deployment of health innovations.
Regarding bioproduction, the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals, you said half of the planned financing is already in place. how are things going?
The stakes are high because France lags behind in this area. But we already have a presence in Europe in terms of biomedicine that is being developed. We are now in second place, behind the UK but ahead of Germany. We focus on innovative projects in the field of cell therapy such as TreeFrog or Whitelab Genomics, a start-up company dedicated to accelerating the development of drug targets through the use of artificial intelligence. We must continue our efforts, which is why we are interested in the entire value chain, including bioproduction tools, and provide dedicated funding for the development of new production processes and the expansion of capabilities.
Therefore, the State of New York supported the CellForCure project together with DGE, and Seqens took over the project from Novartis, again becoming a bioproduction subcontractor. There is also a financing component that supports LFB in increasing its bioproduction capacity in Alès (Gard) and even supports companies developing new processes, such as CellQuest, which miniaturizes bioprocessing, or Nétri, which has an organ-on-a-chip production facility. Things are moving forward, there are several actors.
For industrial projects, is financing triggered by AIS?
No. France Santé 2030’s financier remains Bpifrance, with whom we work closely.
In late summer 2023, an inter-ministerial inspection of the health care product financing and supervision system came to a number of conclusions. Has AIS adopted some of the recommendations from this mission?
Together with DGE we manage the window dedicated to the transfer of established medicines, but most importantly we manage the implementation of the innovation axis. Our action plan focuses on access to innovation, such as everything related to early access to medicines and innovative medical devices, allowing access to products that are not yet authorized on the market. A unique early access experience in the world that only exists in France!
The agency is also working on digital technologies, such as the construction of national health data systems and the development of new technologies. In fact, at every stage of the value chain, our goal is to compress all stages as much as possible. But there is no risk. The goal is to prevent patients from missing out. On the topic of clinical research, we do a lot on digitization and decentralization, since optimization also involves the dissemination of innovations, such as scaling up the care structures that are able to develop or host innovations.
We always praise France for its talent and the quality of its research, but not for its lack of resources and its innovations that escape abroad, especially across the Atlantic. Is there anything we can do to change the situation?
We hope so. We have established a Chair of Excellence in Health Innovation Systems and invested 80 million euros specifically to attract internationally renowned researchers to lead projects within 5 years, with funding of 2 to 5 million euros per project. Our desire is to retain our researchers and attract researchers from abroad. There are currently 22 Excellence Award winners. Like Yasmine Belkaid, a Franco-Algerian who became director of the Pasteur Institute. Or the Italian epigeneticist Giacomo Cavalli’s distinguished chair in Montpellier.
How do you deal with the issue of private financing, which is still lacking in France and Europe in biotech, to protect innovation here?
This is the crux of the matter. In particular, we have partnered with French biotech companies to set up new investment training in biotech, medical technology and digital health. The idea is to provide more visibility and assurance to such investments – which are still characterized by longer development times, even if they are faster in digital health. But it’s still profitable. It is still necessary to understand the problems and opportunities to understand how to “reduce” the risk of the project as much as possible. We also try to connect with stakeholders, particularly at Choose France, where we work to connect innovation project leaders with large pharmaceutical companies and private investors.
As for whether the region’s attractiveness to foreign laboratories has improved?
We are collaborating with Business France on this topic to better explain and demonstrate the extent to which France’s strategy in terms of regulation, financing and acceptance of innovation can meet the challenges. This is sometimes not well understood abroad. However, there are some good examples, such as Novo Nordisk in Chartres, Eli Lilly and Company in Alsace and the Evotec large-scale industrial project in Toulouse. There are also some great businesses like TreeFrog and Vertex or Amolyt that AstraZeneca acquired. We now represent France at the annual BIO Congress in the United States, presenting our global strategy and showcasing what we are doing here.
The institution exists to drive, inspire, set the pace and be the compass and guarantor of the strategic vision for health innovation in France (and internationally). Our goal is to successfully ensure that innovation becomes a real lever for change in our health systems.
1722595622
#Health #Innovation #Agency #compass #innovation #managing #director #Lise #Alter
