The Covid health crisis has had the effect of an electric shock. France, home of Louis Pasteur and vaccination, was largely absent in the anti-coronavirus arms race which saw the emergence of the great innovation of messenger RNA.
In December 2023, it was on this “failure” that Emmanuel Macron relied to justify the announcement of a 7 billion euro plan for health innovation. The objective is to restore France’s leadership in this area by 2030. The strategy is to relaunch investments and shake up administrative and corporatist burdens.
“Administrative complexity and abundance of rules”
There is some bread on a wooden board ! Particularly because there is no innovation without research and our country, which should devote 3% of its GDP to this research, only grants it 2.1% of its wealth.
And there are other obstacles in this area: the weight of bureaucracy, administrative complexity, the abundance of rules and standards are highlighted in a report from the Academy of Medicine published last January. “Researcher, it’s the most valued profession in the world, we have to justify ourselves at each stage of our work, it’s becoming ridiculous!”, lamented an INSERM research director working on Alzheimer’s disease.
“Efficiency and health safety”
And when the research is successful, nothing is gained. Before being made accessible to patients, therapeutic innovation must demonstrate its credentials: rigorous clinical trials, detailed assessment of the benefit-risk balance, analysis of the medical benefit rendered must ensure compliance with effectiveness and health safety. . Without forgetting the sometimes long negotiation imposed by the French system of reimbursement of part of the price of medicines by Health Insurance.
The problem is that when research and innovation lag, it’s not just a matter of national pride. Therapeutic advances, especially in an aging French population, represent hope for all those suffering from a chronic illness. And every obstacle to making an innovation available is nothing other than a loss of opportunity for the patient.