Hybrid 2024 : Discours de Thierry Hulot

                                                                                 ©photo Nathalie_Oundjian

Good morning everyone,

I'm delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to this second HYBRID International Research and Innovation Meeting organised under the High Patronage of the French President who, on 7 December, invited us collectively to step up our efforts on partnership research.

We are working closely with our academic partners (including Inserm), biotechs and the full spectrum of ecosystem stakeholders to identify ways of boosting partnership research.

These meetings are an integral part of this commitment, because they raise the profile of French excellence in research and innovation, and spark enthusiasm for significant collaborative projects going forward.

This second edition focuses on an area of research from which we expect major innovations to emerge: the next generations of gene and cell therapies.

A Horizon Scanning study conducted by Leem indicates that gene and cell therapies will permeate almost all therapeutic areas at some point in the future.

If we are to celebrate this transition in terms of scientific progress, we need to get our act together now to remove existing scientific barriers, contribute to this dynamic process, and embrace these innovations.

But our current system is not ready for that, especially on this last point.

There is a medicines emergency in France today; a fact highlighted by the appointment of an expert panel led by Elisabeth Borne - then Prime Minister - to review the system for financing and regulating medicines. In their findings, the rapporteurs called for a ‘New Deal’ that would radically reform the system.

Leem is fully committed to moving these issues forward, and we have set three priorities:

• The first is ensuring patient access to treatments,
• The second is economic sustainability,
• The third is social responsibility.

Let’s begin with access to treatments. This is about a lot more than simply getting new therapies to market. We must get to grips with every link of the medicines value chain.

Of course, the first step is research, and we need a strong French and European research base.

I am fully convinced that the most powerful and effective research comes out of public-private partnerships. An effective network - united by a shared quest for excellence, of course - is essential to progressing innovation.

Strong international competition is also a reality, and we can see clearly that interdisciplinarity and the creation of new interface models are what drive major success (Boston, Israel, Northern Europe, etc.).

The next issue is ensuring that discoveries are made available to patients. This means following up with a fully connected system that runs the fastest clinical trials in the world. That is the point at which innovations emerge, partnerships are forged and where the dynamic research landscape makes France an attractive option for conducting clinical trials.

• An extensive network: 150 health facilities (including 32 university hospitals) across the country working collaboratively on industry-led clinical trials.
• No.2 in Europe for clinical trials of cancer therapies.
• However other countries are adapting faster than France, with much shorter trial startup lead times.
• Leakage of some clinical trials: France took part in half of all trials initiated in Europe between January 2022 and June 2023.

Innovation and manufacturing competitiveness must be encouraged, because delivering medicines to patients also means producing them.

We need to structure our own bioproduction sector (France Biolead).

• Only 3% of the monoclonal antibodies administered in France are produced here.
• 95% of the biotherapies administered are imported.
• Investment in biomanufacturing facilities accounts for between 50% and 66% of the exceptional investment announcements made by manufacturers. That's almost €1 billion invested annually by the sector going forward.
• France turns the corner: 52 biomanufacturing facilities, including 31 CDMOs (contract development and manufacturing organisations).

I’d like to return now to the issue of economic sustainability. The challenge also involves building the right financial models to fund these innovations, because we can expect to see many of them emerge.

Lastly, there’s social responsibility. We must be integral to the ecological, digital and industrial transition. But at the same time, we must be unwavering in our contribution to addressing public health issues.

It's a colossal task, and the fact that you are all here - more than 300 delegates registered, including 263 operational research bodies, 44% from manufacturing, 24% from biotech and 32% from the academic world - speaks volumes about our collective determination to build public-private research partnerships in France.

Since research is the first link in the chain if we want to attract innovation to France and the wider Europe in the future.

I sincerely hope that this meeting will help to kick-start these partnerships. I know that more than 200 B2B meetings are already scheduled. Let’s be inquisitive and let’s reach out to those we have yet to meet, because I'm convinced that all research begins with human curiosity.

So I wish all of you many excellent and productive encounters across these two days.