During the colloquium on personalized medicine, the Minister of Health presented the State’s commitment to innovation in the service of well-being.
Marisol Touraine wishes to accelerate the development of personalized medicine. On the occasion of the conference organized by Genopôle and Amgen, the Minister of Health presented the various measures taken to support the development of innovation in this field and the emergence of the medicine of tomorrow.
“The challenge is to innovate to improve the well-being of patients,” she said this morning, specifying that in the future “not only will the patient be an actor in their health, but medicine will be an actor. -even will adapt to him ”.
In fact, the proliferation of connected objects, biotechnologies and the arrival of genomic sequencing in daily medical practice will revolutionize the way people treat and heal.
Institutional and financial support
To respond to these challenges, the Minister, in collaboration with her colleague from the Economy and the Secretary of State for Higher Education, launched at the end of November work on the “Medicine of the Future” Solution. This committee, chaired by André Syrota, former president of INSERM and Olivier Charmeil, CEO of Sanofi Pasteur, will bring together personalities from academia, industry and associations.
Their reflections will focus on precision medicine, connected medicine, restorative medicine and their impact on the organization of care. They will have to deliver a roadmap by the end of the first quarter of 2016.
The Minister also recalled that the Prime Minister entrusted to the President of Aviesan (an organization bringing together the major players in the life sciences and health in France), “the mission of establishing recommendations to allow France to introduce whole genome sequencing into usual medical practice in the same way as MRI or CT scan ”. These recommendations should be issued in the coming weeks.
Financial support has also been stepped up. As part of the future investment program, the State is giving 33 million euros as well as 6 billion under the 2016 social security financing law. A fund endowed with 100 million euros is also coming. to be created to support “young industrial shoots”.
A social and ethical evolution
In addition, this support for personalized medicine is accompanied by ethical and social reflection on the meaning of this development. “Health innovation must have only one objective: to treat the greatest number of patients more effectively. Innovation must benefit everyone, it cannot be a luxury reserved for the privileged few ”, judged Marisol Touraine.
To guarantee equal access to innovative treatments, the Minister of Health recalled that these therapies could benefit from a temporary authorization for use (ATU) in a few days. In particular, she cited the case of Truvada prescribed for the prevention of HIV infection in people at high risk.
The Minister also believes that access for everyone to this excellent medicine requires information. A national health innovation day will thus be organized. “The first edition will take place on January 23 and 24, 2016 at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie”, she announced.
On the ethical aspect, in particular on the questions raised by access to genomic sequencing, the Minister will shortly refer the matter to the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) so that a complete, participatory and serene reflection will be organized.
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