PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP, INNOVATION AND CARE FOR PEOPLE: THREE KEY ELEMENTS FOR THE RESTART

“You, emerging from the crisis, have inspired an entire continent, you have shown what the true meaning of solidarity is".

In her recent meeting with Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen praised Italy with these words. While the shadow of the pandemic seems to slowly fade, we must all be ready for the restart of the European economy. As CEO of a large pharmaceutical international company with Italian roots, I agree with Ursula von der Leyen: we can be the protagonist of the restart.

In my opinion, there are three fundamental factors to focus on for the recovery of the European economy: public-private partnerships, innovation, and care for people.

The urgency of a public-private partnership

The challenges of tomorrow need a fresh perspective today to bring about real changes, and we must uncover new opportunities. But great objectives cannot be achieved through the efforts of pharma companies alone: the urgency of creating and strengthening new public-private partnerships between national and supranational actors is clear to everyone.?

It is necessary to focus on strengthening strategic partnerships between EU Member States by looking at existing and potential production sites to support while modernizing and improving their capacities - also taking into account the possible environmental risks that production brings and the increased need for transparency of medicines’ quality control and their manufacturing processes. The new pharmaceutical strategy adopted last November by the European Commission goes precisely in this direction.

New economic policy measures specific to training (from tax credits for training to reductions for recruitment, providing appropriate links and synergies between industry and universities) could enable greater specialization to cope with the complexities that the pandemic has placed before us, and lead to the consolidation of the presence of qualified personnel in companies, making them competitive at an international level.

Innovation and research: a breath of fresh air

The pandemic crisis has shown that research and innovation will increasingly be at the center of the restart, and in particular for pharmaceutical companies. The future of our industry cannot ignore the development of digital transformation and artificial intelligence. New opportunities will arise from the development of digital health and the personalization of therapies. It will be easier to understand our end-users, define their preferences and their characteristics, and take on the unmet patient needs. The study of Big Data will certainly be at the center of the medicine and pharmaceutical industry of the future, but further opportunities will also derive from bio innovation.

Indeed, as much as 60 percent of the physical inputs to the global economy could, in principle, be produced biologically. Therefore, it is possible that bio innovations could impact up to 60 percent of physical inputs, although attaining that full potential is a long way off.

Even modest progress toward it could transform economies, societies, and our lives, including what we eat and wear, the medicines we take, the fuels we use, and how we construct our physical world. In human health, at least 45 percent of the current global disease burden could be addressed using science that is conceivable today[1].

Worldwide, 50% of the drugs in clinical trials are biotech. These technologies also underpin the entire drug discovery process and cut across the entire health sector: from diagnostics (both swabs and serological tests are biotech) to vaccines (vaccines are biotech products) - two areas that proved to be crucial during the pandemic emergency - to therapies. The OECD estimates that by 2030, 80% of pharmaceuticals, 50% of agricultural products and 35% of chemical and industrial products will be biotech, accounting for 2.7% of global GDP. The world's population is expected to grow by 28%, from 6.5 billion in 2005 to 8.3 billion: a larger and wealthier world population will, therefore, increase the global demand for health services that increase the quality of life[2].

To seize these opportunities, it is necessary to create connections and develop new research collaborations. I am convinced that a breath of fresh air could come from open innovation, and that one of the imperatives for the development of our sector in the coming years will be to foster collaboration between players from different sectors and with university centers of excellence or start-ups, with a common goal to offering an integrated range of increasingly innovative, digitalized and patient-friendly products and services.

Commitment to people-centricity

In recent weeks I have had the opportunity to return to visit some of our Italian production sites. I met our people, who never stopped producing even during the first months of the health emergency, to ensure the supply of our products. I have found professional, motivated people, wholly desiring to return to normality, but aware that perhaps normality will no longer be the same.

A restart, based on innovation and public support, will have to put people at the center at all costs. It will be necessary to train them and help them adapt to a new concept of work and spaces. We will have to invest in human resources and prepare them for change.

?Our commitment to people-centricity is the only one that opens the door to change and success today and in the future. As managers, we must be aware of it. We need to listen to people to understand their abilities and strengths. We need to help them adapt to the renewal of organizations, and, at the same time, readjust organizations to their needs.

Remaining in one's ivory tower would mean not taking responsibility, avoiding the risk of revealing the 'weak' side of one's emotional intelligence, missing the extraordinary opportunity that moments of crisis can offer us: accepting imperfection and sharing it, taking failure into account and admitting it without hesitation.

?In this sense, we cannot do without communication. This communication, from human being to human being, represents a major contemporary change. It involves an exceptional challenge since it requires us to solve unprecedented problems not based on knowledge and experience, but through our creativity. And creativity in a complex system - like the reality we are living - is not an innate ability, but a quality based on a continuous feeding of curiosity, on the courage to change one's vision - if necessary -, on the purpose to make a difference. Every day. Together.?

[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/pharmaceuticals-and-medical-products/our-insights/the-bio-revolution-innovations-transforming-economies-societies-and-our-lives

[2] https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/uk/en/reports/strategy-where-next-for-pharma.pdf