letter 4 Jun Editorial

Transcription

1 Editorial In December 2008, in the editorial of the first HCP newsletter, the President of the Board wrote, about the future challenges for the HCP and its Members, that the path through which we shall take this ship to safe harbour will demand hard work from all those involved, as well as cooperation where there s no such tradition and persistence, because the failures that will certainly occur must serve only to enhance our motivation. One year and a half later, I return to this statement since it encloses three keywords that now I intend to evoke: cooperation, persistence and motivation. If, to thesethreewords, weaddafourth one Innovation we have the ingredients that are on the basis of something which I think represents a significant step in the life of HCP and the Health value chain in Portugal: the recent formalization of two Flagship Projects included in HCP s Programme of Action, namely, the project AAL4ALL- Ambient Assisted Living for All and the project Do IT Development and Operation of Translational Research. Both projects are excellent examples of the collaborative culture that is becoming increasingly common within the Health sector in Portugal, since they mobilize a total of over 50 organizations, including companies, R&D institutions, universities and hospitals. The Project AAL4ALL- Ambient Assisted Living for All involves 35 organizations and aims at the mobilization of an industrial ecosystem for the massification of products and services in the area of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), focused on the definition of specifics standards. The Project Do IT, in turn, will mobilize a set of scientific, technological and productive capabilities and expertise from a group of 21 organizations, aiming at the generation of knowledge and its subsequent transformation into new products/solutions with high technological and innovation content, which may contribute to the improvement of human health and to generate value for the Portuguese economy. In common, these projects will also accomplish a broader goal: to increase the competitiveness of the Portuguese Health value chain, at a global scale, thus affirming the country as a top tier player in the research, design, development, manufacturing and commercialization of health-related products and services. Joaquim Cunha Executive Director letter 4 Jun News 1

2 Project AAL4ALL Ambient Assisted Living for All Objective: - Mobilization of an industrial ecosystem for the massification of products and services in the area of Ambient Assisted Living(AAL), focused on the definition of specifics standards(for products and services). Co-promoters: Be Artis Project Do IT Development and Operation of Translational Research Objectives: - Development of translational research strategies and organizational models applicable to the entities of the Portuguese health value chain companies, R&D institutions and hospitals. - Development of innovative and competitive products and services for the global Health market. Co-promoters: 2

3 News & events HCP General Meeting It took place on 11 December 2009, at the Rectory of UniversidadeNova de Lisboa, a General Meeting of the Health Cluster Portugal, during which the Business Plan and Budget for 2010 was approved. HCP received by the Secretary of State for Health On 11 January 2010, the Secretary of State for Health, Manuel Pizarro, received the Board of the HCP, who presented the strategic framework and objectives, as well as the activities already developed and an overview of the initiatives in progress and that will be developed in the future. HCP in the coordination of the workshop Service and Quality Methods in Healthcare HCP promoted a roundtable meeting on the theme Innovation in Health It took place on 11 December 2009, at the Rectory of UniversidadeNova de Lisboa, a roundtable meeting on the theme Innovation in Health. The initiative promoted by the HCP brought together around 70 participants, representing nearly as many entities, including enterprises (in the areas of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices and services), R&D institutions, universities, hospitals and several public entities and associations. The debate was moderated by the journalist Camilo Lourenço, and the discussion panel included Carlos Faro (CNC/Biocant), Isabel Vaz(EspíritoSanto Saúde), José Furtado(CGD/CaixaCapital), Julie Brown (AstraZeneca), Miguel Garcia (TechnoPhage) e Pedro Ferraz da Costa (Iberfar). Integrated in the QSP Summit 2010, QSP promoted a workshop on the theme Service and Quality Methods in Healthcare, which took place on 11 March 2010, at Exponor. The Executive Director of HCP, JoaquimCunha, was co-coordinator of the workshop. HCP participated in the I Transnational Conference Clusters, clusters policies and innovation networks in Europe It took place in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on 11 and 12 March 2010, the I Transnational Conference Clusters, clusters policies and innovation networks in Europe. The Executive Director of HCP integrated the panel Possibilities for Cluster Cooperation. HCP General Meeting It took place on 19 March 2010, at the auditorium of Bial, a General Meeting of the HCP. The main topics in the agenda were the analysis and voting of the 2009 Annual Report, and the election of a new Member of the Audit Committee. António Cunha, rector of the University of Minho, was elected for the place. The main conclusions of the roundtable are presented in the supplement to this newsletter. 3

4 HCP promoted the conference Patents in value creation in the area of Health The HCP promoted a conference entitled Patents in value creation in the area of Health, which was held on 19 March The aim of the conference was to debate the actual and potential impact of patents in the area of Health in Portugal. The conference included the intervention of AntónioCampinos, President of the National Institute for Industrial Property and Maria de Belém Roseira, Member of the Assembly of the Republic. The conference agenda also included a debate about the theme The patents in the commercial life of Health-related companies. The debate panel, which was moderated by Peter Villax, Director at Hovioneand a member of HCP s Board, included Ana Paula Carvalho, CEO at Laboratórios Pfizer, JoãoSeabra, General Director at Siemens Healthcare and Pedro Pissarra, President of Biotecnol. HCP participated in the workshop From Health to Well-Being: Services with the Citizens Included in the APDC (Portuguese Association for the Development of Communications) cycle of workshops Toward a Public Administration of the XXI Century, it took place on 19 May 2010, in Lisbon, the workshop From Health to Well-Being: Services with the Citizens. The HCP participated in the workshop, and its Executive Director moderated the panel The citizens in managing their Health and Well-Being. During this Panel, the HCP s Anchor Project AAL4ALL was presented by Dirk Elias, from FraunhoferPortugal, one of the organizations involved in the project. HCP participated in the initiative Telemedicine and Health ICT in Portugal and in Norway status and opportunities It took place on 27 May 2010, in Lisbon, the initiative Telemedicine and Health ICT in Portugal and in Norway status and opportunities, organized by Innovation Norway Lisbon in cooperation with the Norwegian Embassy and the Portuguese Innovation Agency, aiming to exchange experiences and practices between the two countries. The event included a seminar followed by one-to-one meetings. The HCP participated in the event, represented by its Executive Director, with a presentation in the session Competitiveness and Innovation in the ehealth sector. New HCP members The following entities have recently joined HCP: Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa ( INOV INESC Inovação Institutode Novas Tecnologias ( I-Zone SGPS, S.A. ( Lilly Portugal -ProdutosFarmacêuticos, Lda. ( Link Bioscience, S.A. ( Roche FarmacêuticaQuímica, Lda. ( Take the Wind, Lda. ( 4

5 HCP inthemedia Keep track of HCP appearances in the media at /news. Next events June2010 Course Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property in Biomedicine IMM (Edifício Egas Moniz), Lisboa. 16 June2010 Seminar FromScienceto Market strategiesandnetworksfor thehealthsector Pólo III da Universidade de Coimbra (Pólo das Ciências da Saúde), Coimbra. 21 June2010 Workshop Medical Devices in Portugal: Turning Knowledge into Products Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Guimarães June2010 Government & Health ICT Forum Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisboa June2010 EU Policy Workshop on Public Primary Care Standard for AAL Services in Europe Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisboa. More news and events at Rua Eng. o Frederico Ulrich, 2650 Moreira da Maia Maia PORTUGAL Tel: (+351) info@healthportugal.com

6 Newsletter 4 (supl.) Jun Roundtable Innovation in Health It took place on 11 December 2009, at the Rectory of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, a roundtable meeting on the theme Innovation in Health. The initiative promoted by the HCP brought together around 70 participants, representing enterprises, R&D institutions, universities, hospitals and public entities and associations. The debate was moderated by the economics journalist Camilo Lourenço, and the discussion panel included Carlos Faro (CNC/Biocant), Isabel Vaz (Espírito Santo Saúde), José Furtado (CGD/Caixa Capital), Julie Brown (AstraZeneca), Miguel Garcia (TechnoPhage) and Pedro Ferraz da Costa (Iberfar). The session started with the intervention of the Executive Director of HCP, Joaquim Cunha, that, referring to the current situation in Portugal, in terms of innovation in Health, stated: «we have good reasons to think that we have scientific knowledge, in fact, good scientific knowledge I would say». However, he added that «only a small part of this knowledge is transformed into value or benefit for the patients or for the citizens». Besides Science, Joaquim Cunha also referred to other actors in the Health value chain as well, stating that «we also have good companies and good business managers, as well as good healthcare professionals». And, he added, «we have good infrastructures and good managers». In fact, it is widely recognized that the significant investment made in Portugal over the past few years particularly in R&D funding, training of human resources and in the modernization of infrastructures and equipment for scientific research in the areas of Life and Health Sciences has been producing significant results:

7 Newsletter 4 (supl.) Jun i) Portugal has nowadays more researchers and PhDs in these areas than it ever had and their quality is increasingly recognized. Nevertheless, it is vital to ensure a continuous improvement in the levels of attractiveness for scientists, thus ensuring the retention of talent in the country. ii) The scientific production has been evolving, bothinquantityandinquality,inaveryconsistent manner, with the number of publications growing at rates over three times the world average, and articles with increasing impact factor and receiving more citations each year. iii) It is more and more common to find Portuguese institutions integrating projects/ consortia in collaboration with counterparts from other countries, many of them recognized as reference players in the Health domain. It is now the right time to take the next step, that is, to exploit and to get value out of all the investment that has been done. In other words, it is time to go from knowledge to market, because in this aspect Portugal is still far from what it would be desirable. In this regard, there are numerous opportunities, including the following: i) To promote increased interaction between academics/scientists and business agents, in order to overcome barriers such as the lack of tradition in generating collaborations, the possible cultural differences between these actors, or the alleged lack of opportunities for establishing direct contacts. ii) To enhance the levels of motivation and/or preparation in the academic world to exploit/ transfer the developed technologies (in other words, to boost a culture of entrepreneurship). iii) To ensure the adequacy of the technologies developed by academic/scientific institutions to the needs/ requirements/ preferences of the markets. iv) To facilitate the access to high-quality services in the area of intellectual property rights. v) To control, through adequate financing tools, the difficulties in overcoming the gap between research and industrial production. If some of the mentioned constraints have a very complex character and are not easy to overcome at all (which also justifies the fact that they are common and recurrent in many countries), it is also clear that many of them are transposable "only" by changing (or, many would say, by revolutionizing) mentalities and the current paradigms in the exploitation of scientific knowledge, as well as the culture of cooperation among the various stakeholders of the sector. It is crucial that all the players researchers, entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, users and decision makers engage actively in creating a sustained ecosystem that maximizes cooperation, entrepreneurship and innovation. This will be a critical success factor for the Portuguese health value chain, which in medium/long term can decisively determine its competitiveness. In an overall view, initiatives such as the Health Cluster Portugal will seek to sustain this commitment and to enhance the competitiveness gains, by creating and strengthening a suitable environment for Health-related activities, including business, R&D and care providing. Only from this cooperative effort shall result the accomplishment of one common Vision: to establish Portugal as a competitive player in the Health sector, at the global level. Rua Eng. o Frederico Ulrich, 2650 Moreira da Maia Maia PORTUGAL Tel: (+351) info@healthportugal.com