With guest speakers, world-renowned scientists from the academic field of pharmacology, as well as two managing directors of technological innovation companies that are active in the field of health at the international level, a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Research and Technology was held, chaired by ND MP, Professor Christou Tarantilis in order to investigate this issue. “Technological innovation and drug development”.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Tarantilis praised the level of Greek research institutions and human resources in the life sciences sector, emphasizing that a vibrant Greek research ecosystem has been created that has the potential to generate internationally successful start-ups in the coming years. and spin-offs. Mr. Tarantilis then analyzed the impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning on the medical sciences industry, stating that algorithms are now able to extract huge amounts of medical data and discover hidden patterns and correlations that can be used to

• recognize and diagnose diseases
• predict outbreaks of seasonal diseases and pandemics,
• predict the results of clinical trials,
• find and develop procedures, even at the individual level.

In addition, Mr. Tarantilis emphasized the great contribution of artificial intelligence to the design of clinical trials, the development of new drugs and the modernization of existing drugs for the treatment of serious diseases.

Then the guest speakers spoke. Firstly, Mr. Achilleas Gravanis, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Crete School of Medicine, Research Fellow at the Foundation for Technology and Research (ITE) and co-founder of the BioNature & ReNeuroCell techno-domains, briefly presented the research results achieved at the University of Crete. Crete and ITE, which has led to the creation of two techno-fields that deal with innovative treatment of complex health problems such as neurodegenerative diseases (eg Alzheimer’s disease) and diabetic pallor, using cutting-edge technologies. Mr. Gravanis noted that in recent years, large pharmaceutical companies have been closing their research infrastructures and collaborating with universities, research centers and subsidiaries, and stressed that “the way we manufacture drugs is changing dramatically”, moving from a hitherto symptomatic treatments in new forms (eg, mRNA vaccines, 3D-printed tissues, nanodevices) that will solve the problem.

According to Mr. Gravanis, he must:

• promote the production of generics and biosimilars (which annually brings in our country 2.2-2.4 billion dollars through acquisitions), innovative gene, cell therapy and regenerative medicine, the development of biomaterials (where research groups work in Greek companies with publications in leading scientific journals), the development of new mRNA and cDNA vaccines not only against infectious but also other diseases (for example, neurodegenerative), the creation of a biobank with the genetic material of the Greeks to search for biomarkers that will contribute to the treatment of diseases such as cancer, and the development of biomaterials such as neuroimplants,
• to strengthen university technology transfer offices with business people to guide and connect researchers with the market world;
• provide technology companies with strong tax incentives to attract outstanding scientists, either from the private sector or from the diaspora, by reducing or eliminating insurance premiums to ensure competitive salaries;
• make significant investments by the private sector by building the infrastructure and equipping universities for the development of biotechnological products and new therapeutic approaches.

Concluding his speech, Mr. Gravanis stated that in the coming years the Greek pharmaceutical industry could transform from sellers of original medicines into partners and participants in the development of new high value-added therapeutic technologies, thus creating new, well-paid and sustainable jobs. .

Then Mr. Andreas Papapetropoulos, Professor of Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacy, National University of Athens. drugs in order to maintain market share.

Citing the data, Mr. Papatropoulos noted that the countries that invest more than 3% of their GDP in research (Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, Denmark) have achieved the greatest success in the field of biotechnology. In addition, he emphasized that “support for research – basic and clinical – is the cornerstone of the success of the project.”

According to Mr. Papatropoulos, in order to develop the Greek biotech innovation ecosystem, it is necessary to:

• Clarification of the regulatory framework on intellectual property issues.
• Public investment to support basic research through programs, infrastructure, equipment purchases.
• Financing instruments from the private sector.
• Incentives, tax and otherwise, for the collaboration and merger of private sector pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
• Spatial planning to focus efforts on incubators that will support the development of biotechnology innovation companies.
• Development of a biobusiness culture in universities and research centers.
• Incentives to attract professionals with experience from abroad.
• Upgrading EOF and NHS for more and better clinical trials.

Then Ms. Irene Schlosser, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dyania Health, Inc, spoke about the contribution of technology to faster and more accurate matching of candidates with serious diseases (oncological, autoimmune, etc.) to clinical drugs. tests, through a system of digitized medical data in a usable form. In addition, he stressed that the data is anonymized in accordance with the GDPR regulation.

Most importantly for Ms. Schlosser, her company is hiring new medical graduates who don’t work until they enter residency, which helps prevent brain drain. Concluding her speech, she proposed to completely digitize the National Health System, creating a single data collection system that will monitor every patient of any doctor or hospital.

Finally, Dr. Maria Hatzou Dunford, co-founder and CEO of Lifebit, mentioned the company’s pioneering work that enables faster diagnosis and better understanding of diseases through the use of clinical and genetic data. Ms Hadjou focused on the UK Department of Health’s Genomics England, made possible over a decade by sequencing genomes and linking them to the clinical data of 100,000 patients with rare diseases and cancer:

• Increase in the diagnosis of rare diseases by 5 times,
• A 50% increase in the likelihood of providing the right treatment for cancer patients,
• 65% more likely to detect cancer-causing genetic markers.

Therefore, Ms. Hatzou’s proposal for Greece to develop a strong biotechnology sector is to create a personalized medicine organization along the lines of Genomics England, which will develop an artificial intelligence platform to manage, process, connect and integrate data, making it accessible and useful to doctors. and researchers so that they can diagnose patients very quickly and obtain research results for the development of new drugs.