Investing in innovation in health: a new industrial strategy for the COVID-19 era

As Europe reflects on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, some are calling for Europe’s new industrial strategy to integrate ‘strategic autonomy’ into critical sectors like health, while also maintaining a leading position on medical innovation.

The pandemic has taught us that “there are gaps, weaknesses and fragilities” in our system, noted moderator Tamsin Rose while opening the event. “We have learned now that we need to invest in a different way, in a smart way, when we look at rebuilding and restarting our economies to make sure that we have the resilience in our societies to cope with this, and future threats.”

Does Europe need strategic autonomy and what would it look like?

Europe plays a leading global role when it comes to life sciences and the healthcare sector. Why should the new EU industrial strategy focus on boosting strategic autonomy in this arena and what does that actually mean?

• 4:55 “One image particularly struck me: the planes arriving directly from China, full of masks, because we were not able to produce them in Europe. How is it possible to be so dependent on foreign industries for such a simple product? / 9:28 “[This] means relocating some industrial activities in the EU.” [Christophe Grudler]
• 12:30 France’s financial recovery plan includes a “big shift in the importance of industry” and securing strategic supplies with incentives in key sectors – including health – for the “localisation of production capacity”. [Romain Bonenfant]
• 44:09 “We need to be a bit thoughtful because innovation and expertise never exist in one place.… think about resilient supply chains and R&D infrastructure rather than reshoring everything.” [George Katzourakis]
• 39:56 How do you find the “sweet spot” that touches on all aspects of the innovation ecosphere – including skills, jobs, training and research – as well as picking up on other political priorities such as the Green Deal and the circular economy, in a way that contributes towards strategic autonomy? asked Tamsin Rose. / 40:25 “It is a hard balancing act, but it is the way we are working across the board in this Commission. The flagship initiatives of the Green Deal and the digital transformation of Europe are two factors that are always considered across all our policies.” [Despina Spanou]

Autonomy doesn’t mean protectionism

• 16:27 “When we talk about resilience, it’s sometimes seen as a way to do protectionist measures … but actually it’s not how we see it and how we design our measures – we believe we will achieve resilience through innovation and competitive business.” [Romain Bonenfant]
• 37:51 “It is not protectionism… strategic autonomy is to have our destiny in our own hands. We can make business with China, but not only with China, we need maybe four or five other countries.” [Christophe Grudler]
• 23:20 “It is not about [protectionism]. I think every part of the world wishes to be able to manage a situation like this unprecedented pandemic we’re living now.” [Despina Spanou]

‘Show me the money’

If Europe is serious about maintaining its position as a leader in innovation, there needs to be renewed emphasis within the industrial strategy on seeing through the capitalisation and financing of that innovation, said Nina Rawal, who works in a health-focused venture capital fund.

• 46:03 “Europe does a great job at investing in early research… there’s a lot of money to be found for early-stage companies in this area, but then as they develop into product-developing companies…there really isn’t a lot of capital to be found.” [Nina Rawal]
• 48:26 “We need to put a lot more resources. We have to use our programmes to go beyond the traditional approach of research, we have to change the way we do things… we invest a lot in Europe in research and innovation… but the way we have been doing it has been the same for years.” [Despina Spanou]
• 50:48 “We believe an initiative at the European level could be warranted… to specifically address the scaling-up of innovative companies in health.” [Romain Bonenfant]

• 6:54 “We need to support our SMEs in the industrial sector… they face important barriers to enter the market and to reach the commercialisation phase of their technologies.” [Christophe Grudler]

Big ideas: what can the EU do?

No one predicted this time last year that health would be quite so high on the European Commission’s agenda. The pandemic has shown that a more “European approach” is needed, said Despina Spanou, who called for investment that is  targeted and strategic, highlighting the “important investments” being made in the new European Health Union.

• 22:14 The COVID crisis has shown the importance of the internal market and now Europe needs to invest in a “true internal market of medical supplies” and in its pharmaceutical industry, and place efforts into the “priority of digital.” / 25:57 “The EU4Health programme has suffered in the negotiations… but what has changed in Europe is that health is now present in all priorities.” [Despina Spanou]
• 58:39 “The European Union [should] define what success looks like… [so] you’re making sure that you’re making progress in the right direction, and you’re ensuring also that all these policy initiatives are coherent”. [George Katzourakis]
• 59:32 “We must better support the digitalisation of the European health industry.” [Christophe Grudler]
• 1:00:32 There’s good alignment on the concept of strategic autonomy, so “the big idea now is speed of implementation at the European level. We need to turn this concept into concrete acts”. [Romain Bonenfant]