EUCOPE’s Sounds of Science Podcast – Episode #19 Building a competitive pharmaceutical ecosystem: EUCOPE’s call to EU Institutions

EUCOPE’s Sounds of Science Podcast – Episode 19

Building a competitive pharmaceutical ecosystem: EUCOPE’s call to EU Institutions

In this episode of Sounds of Science, we invited our members, Toon Digneffe and Enrico Piccinini, to discuss with Alexander Natz how the EU’s competitiveness strategies may impact the life science sector. Together, they explored the impact of the ongoing revision of the GPL, the messages contained in the Letta and Draghi report, and the importance of creating a sound and robust ecosystem for the pharmaceutical sector to boost innovation. They also addressed how the life science sector can spearhead EU’s competitiveness.

The guests of this episode are:

• Enrico Piccinini, Senior Vice President, EU & International, Rare Diseases, Chiesi Group
• Toon Digneffe, Head Public Affairs & Public Policy, Europe & Canada, Takeda
• Alexander Natz, Secretary General, EUCOPE

This episode is hosted by EUCOPE’s Senior Government Affairs Manager, Stefano Romanelli.

You can listen to Episode 19 and all other Sounds of Science podcast episodes using the links below:

 

 

Episode Highlights

• Enrico Piccinini, Senior Vice President, EU & International, Rare Diseases, Chiesi Group

“To remain globally competitive – and this was the call of our letter – the European pharmaceutical industry needs to have a robust incentivising and predictable policy environment. All this can allow the strong investments that are needed in the pharma sector to come to create innovation and a general ecosystem driven to the patient needs. Indeed, a general simplified framework is needed to have the right talents and to have an overall ecosystem that support innovation.”

• Toon Digneffe, Head Public Affairs & Public Policy, Europe & Canada, Takeda

“I believe the EU should raise its ambitions in terms of competitiveness. And, inspired by the Draghi report, we’ve heard the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated some of these ambitions at the start of the new EU legislative term and I think that’s a positive development. So, I think we should build on that momentum.”

• Alexander Natz, Secretary General, EUCOPE

“We had a few essential points that we hope the Commission and the EU Institutions will prioritise as part of their life science sector. Regulatory simplification, predictability and strong incentives. Exploiting our excellency among others. Another point that I’d like to mention and that we have also highlighted in our letter is political attention for rare diseases, ideally with a Rare Disease Action Plan that is holistic and comprehensive and tries to tackle in this way the challenges that exist.”

This episode builds on the open letter sent to EU Institutions in September 2024.

Listen to previous episodes here.