Europe has overtaken the US and China in the number of modern drugs introduced to the market. Last year, there were 28 in the US, 25 in China, and eight fewer in Europe. Representatives of national and global pharmaceutical companies spoke in Karpacz about what economic and cultural conditions are conducive to making Europe more innovative in the global market.
The following people talked about “Competitiveness of the pharmaceutical sector and development opportunities”: Agnieszka Grzybowska-Zalewska, member of the Management Board of Sanofi Poland, Jacek Śmiałek, acting President of Sandoz in Poland, Yuriy Markevych, Head of Customer Relations at Yuria-Pharm, Krzysztof Kopeć, President of the Polish Association of Employers in the Pharmaceutical Industry - National Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, Justin Gandy, Managing Director of MSD Poland, Sameh Rafla, CEO of Takeda Pharma, and Krzysztof Kępiński, Head of External Relations at GSK.
In the 1960s, $1 billion could create and market ten new drugs, now an average of $3 billion is needed for one. The innovative profile of the pharmaceutical industry has changed: many companies are investing more in collaborating with start-ups on research, rather than developing their own research centres. Together, they are working on new drugs and conducting clinical trials.
As Agnieszka Grzybowska-Zalewska pointed out, what is above all important to the patient is that the medicines are available, and they usually do not pay attention to where they are produced: "The important thing is that innovation is doing well in the world and, as a result, we have a much better chance of having targeted therapies than we used to.”
In assessing the Polish market, she noted that it was difficult to convince global companies to conduct clinical trials in countries where these drugs would then not be available, as reimbursement was hardly offered for them. In her view, digitalisation would certainly improve the competitiveness of the region (including the EU as a whole). "We have a lot of different data, we just don't analyse it, it's not generally available, so that the doctor that the patient goes to see considers the 'whole' patient and not just one disease,” explained the CEO of Sanofi Poland.
