EuropaBio sets out Healthcare Manifesto 2011-2012, en route to 2020

The biotechnology industry trade group EuropaBio has launched its new Healthcare Manifesto 2011-2012. The document provides guidance and recommendation for the future development of an innovative, competitive and responsive European Healthcare Biotech Industry that will lead to innovative solutions to unmet medical needs, it says.

EuropaBio chairman, Andrea Rappagliosi, commented: “The biotechnology industry supports the ambitious goals set by the Barroso 2020 Strategy and the EU Commission’s Innovation Union to ensure that innovative ideas can be turned into products and services to meet unmet medical needs and at the same time create growth and jobs. We also want to provide a valuable leading high-tech industry sector in Europe which, through responsible innovation, pushes the boundaries of science to increase our understanding of disease mechanisms to help find new solutions for patients and their families.”

Over the last two years, the climate of economic uncertainty has had a dramatic and negative impact on health care biotechnology. It has limited finance for smaller companies and has also driven national governments towards implementing measures to contain costs within their health care systems as well as in their science and research budgets, the association noted.