reater scientific collaboration is critical in reviving economic growth and scalable recovery as we battle this COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID-19, the global biotech industry was estimated to expand at 9.9% CAGR to reach $775 billion by 2024. Asia Pacific holds the second largest share of biotech firms globally (24%), second only to the U.S. which makes up 48.2%. More importantly, this pandemic has shown us that in addition to our ongoing work, there are many unmet patient health needs, which must be addressed urgently.
Realistically, we will only be able to achieve such goals in a reasonable timeframe by improving the way that we pool together our resources. For example, to boost timetables and eliminate many developmental hurdles, the majority of U.S. Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs) source raw materials in China. The relationship is a mutually beneficial one. Similarly, foreign investment plays a significant role in early-stage biotech companies globally, allowing them to continue operations and expand their pipelines.
This is why I find the most recent trend of dividing biotech activities by country in a so-called “race for a cure” narrative especially problematic for both multinational pharmaceutical, up-and-coming global biotechnology companies, and patients. This is simply not the way our industry has worked, and it is not a sustainable model for continued progress.
On 25 March 2020, the EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services issued more stringent screening on foreign investment in areas such as health, medical research biotechnology and infrastructures. There are similar trends in policies that followed suit across Europe, the United States, Italy, Germany, and Australia.
Having counseled global biotech companies and pharmaceutical companies in both the U.S. and Asia. I have experienced first-hand the real-world urgency to break barriers and keep the flow of knowledge and expertise moving to deliver on our pipelines. This is even more the case now as our global communities continue to work to flatten the curve.
New partnerships and policy benchmarks.
Thankfully, there are a number of multi-partner efforts working now specifically to remove barriers and coordinate R&D efforts at scale. Just one example is the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Mastercard Launch Initiative. Working together with the World Health Organization, global regulatory and policy-setting institutions, the accelerator aims to pool resources and coordinate investments to accelerate research.
Understanding that the delicate ecosystem of the biotech industry, from discovery to delivery, across its global ecosystem will require policy makers to continue to leverage the knowledge of specialists and scientists in these pockets of collaboration throughout our recovery to make sure that regulation is a facilitator rather than a barrier to the industry in the long-term.
Pre-COVID-19, the OECD provided benchmarks for regulators evaluating their national biotech policies which hold even more relevance today. These policies are all geared at sustainable growth of the industry. What all benchmarks have in common is a focus on policies that support continued business investment in biotechnology R&D, rather than a hindrance to it. Such support improves the competitiveness of biotechnology-based companies while also leveraging regional synergies between universities, research institutions, venture capitalists, investors and principal researchers.
Enabling an environment to combine scientific knowledge, capital and commercial expertise to develop and introduce products to the market will take significant effort from private, public and non-governmental agencies. To facilitate these partnerships, governments must establish legal frameworks that are not inward-looking but focus on international regulatory cooperation and harmonization. No two national regulatory systems are alike, but as countries align best practices of international regulators and organizations, they can create new opportunities for local biotech innovators to expand and grow globally to continue to accelerate our bank of scientific knowledge.
We must avoid thinking and operating in silos and focus on building ecosystems with more closely aligned frameworks and continued competition. This will be critical to driving the efficiencies and innovation we need to continue to save lives and ensure a full and sustainable recovery.
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For a Resilient Recovery, We Must Avoid Silos in Our Global Scientific Communities
August 11, 2020
G
reater scientific collaboration is critical in reviving economic growth and scalable recovery as we battle this COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID-19, the global biotech industry was estimated to expand at 9.9% CAGR to reach $775 billion by 2024. Asia Pacific holds the second largest share of biotech firms globally (24%), second only to the U.S. which makes up 48.2%. More importantly, this pandemic has shown us that in addition to our ongoing work, there are many unmet patient health needs, which must be addressed urgently.
Realistically, we will only be able to achieve such goals in a reasonable timeframe by improving the way that we pool together our resources. For example, to boost timetables and eliminate many developmental hurdles, the majority of U.S. Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs) source raw materials in China. The relationship is a mutually beneficial one. Similarly, foreign investment plays a significant role in early-stage biotech companies globally, allowing them to continue operations and expand their pipelines.
This is why I find the most recent trend of dividing biotech activities by country in a so-called “race for a cure” narrative especially problematic for both multinational pharmaceutical, up-and-coming global biotechnology companies, and patients. This is simply not the way our industry has worked, and it is not a sustainable model for continued progress.
On 25 March 2020, the EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services issued more stringent screening on foreign investment in areas such as health, medical research biotechnology and infrastructures. There are similar trends in policies that followed suit across Europe, the United States, Italy, Germany, and Australia.
Having counseled global biotech companies and pharmaceutical companies in both the U.S. and Asia. I have experienced first-hand the real-world urgency to break barriers and keep the flow of knowledge and expertise moving to deliver on our pipelines. This is even more the case now as our global communities continue to work to flatten the curve.
New partnerships and policy benchmarks.
Thankfully, there are a number of multi-partner efforts working now specifically to remove barriers and coordinate R&D efforts at scale. Just one example is the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Mastercard Launch Initiative. Working together with the World Health Organization, global regulatory and policy-setting institutions, the accelerator aims to pool resources and coordinate investments to accelerate research.
Understanding that the delicate ecosystem of the biotech industry, from discovery to delivery, across its global ecosystem will require policy makers to continue to leverage the knowledge of specialists and scientists in these pockets of collaboration throughout our recovery to make sure that regulation is a facilitator rather than a barrier to the industry in the long-term.
Pre-COVID-19, the OECD provided benchmarks for regulators evaluating their national biotech policies which hold even more relevance today. These policies are all geared at sustainable growth of the industry. What all benchmarks have in common is a focus on policies that support continued business investment in biotechnology R&D, rather than a hindrance to it. Such support improves the competitiveness of biotechnology-based companies while also leveraging regional synergies between universities, research institutions, venture capitalists, investors and principal researchers.
Enabling an environment to combine scientific knowledge, capital and commercial expertise to develop and introduce products to the market will take significant effort from private, public and non-governmental agencies. To facilitate these partnerships, governments must establish legal frameworks that are not inward-looking but focus on international regulatory cooperation and harmonization. No two national regulatory systems are alike, but as countries align best practices of international regulators and organizations, they can create new opportunities for local biotech innovators to expand and grow globally to continue to accelerate our bank of scientific knowledge.
We must avoid thinking and operating in silos and focus on building ecosystems with more closely aligned frameworks and continued competition. This will be critical to driving the efficiencies and innovation we need to continue to save lives and ensure a full and sustainable recovery.
