Today, global leaders from the pharmaceutical industry met with German officials from the ministries of health and economic development as well as the Federal Chancellor’s office to discuss both national and international developments which impact future innovation and global health.

The Biopharmaceutical CEO Roundtable (BCR) delegation exchanged views on how the German government and industry can work together to reinvigorate innovation across the life sciences eco-system.

The biopharmaceutical industry shared its analysis of COVID-19 lessons learned; highlighting that swift pathogen surveillance and sharing, an enabling innovation ecosystem, and regulatory agility are among the lessons that must be preserved for future ability to fight against unknown diseases. The most important lesson of the report is that we must redouble collective efforts to achieve health equity, while ensuring health systems and delivery infrastructure are strengthened.

Jean-Christophe Tellier, IFPMA President and CEO of UCB applauded Germany’s leadership of the G7’s pandemic response: “The biopharmaceutical industry has stepped up in an unprecedented manner to this pandemic by developing and manufacturing vaccines and treatments in a way that would have been deemed impossible before COVID-19. Going forwards, we support the ambitions of the G7 100 Days Mission, to ensure that innovation and partnerships deliver”.

No less dangerous than the COVID-19 pandemic today, is the global threat due to the uncontrolled rise of superbugs resistant to antibiotics. At their meetings, the CEOs also called for the G7 to act on tackling the lack of incentives to innovation in the field of antibiotic research and development. Stefan Oelrich, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG and President of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division is one of 20 biopharmaceutical investor companies in the AMR Action Fund, a billion-dollar public-private partnership fund that aims to develop two to four new antibiotics by 2030.  Oelrich said: “The time to take action on this pressing health topic is now. It requires a joint effort from industry and policy makers alike driving reimbursement reforms and novel investment incentivisation in order to create a sustainable antibiotic market. We urge the G7 governments to actively drive the required governmental action so that the antibiotic pipeline actually meets the needs of our patients”.

Commenting on the meetings about Germany’s innovation eco-system: Han Steutel, President of Verband Forschender Arzneimittelhersteller e.V. (VFA) said: “Industry has been working closely with the German government on how we can reinvigorate Germany’s role as a life sciences innovator, and today’s meeting with global Chief Executives underlined the progress we are making. Innovation from across the life science eco-system has huge potential as a Strategic Industry (‘Leitindustrie’) for Germany’s growth potential in terms of investment and employment”.

About IFPMA

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) represents over 90 innovative pharmaceutical companies and associations around the world. Our industry’s almost three million employees discover, develop, and deliver medicines and vaccines that advance global health. Based in Geneva, IFPMA has official relations with the United Nations and contributes industry expertise to help the global health community improve the lives of people everywhere. For more information, visit ifpma.org.

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Elliot Dunster e.dunster@ifpma.org