Attracting investment, promoting French competitiveness and supporting future projects. These are the reasons for being that guide the Agency. Innovation Health (AIS) since its creation in November 2022. Attached to the General Secretariat for Investment and working in close collaboration with the Ministries of Health, Research and Industry, the AIS is leading the deployment of the Health Innovation plan, one of the components of the France 2030 plan. Made up of around fifteen people, it oversees progress in the biotechnology, medtech and digital health sectors, with missions to support and accelerate projects. Interview with Lise Alter, its general manager.
L’Usine Nouvelle – The Health Innovation Agency was created at the end of 2022. What is your initial assessment, a year and a half later?
Lise Alter – We are making good progress. On the Health 2030 component, €2 billion out of a total of €7.5 billion have already been invested. In total, 300 projects have been submitted. We have set up genuine personalized support for start-ups, and calls for projects within the framework of France 2030 are continuing in the four priority areas: biomedicines and bioproduction, emerging infectious diseases and NRBC risks. (nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical, editor’s note)digital health and innovative medical devices. Regarding requests for project support, we can now guarantee a one-hour appointment within 15 days.
On the bioproduction axis, approximately 50% of the planned envelope has already been committed. We are also carrying out strong actions on the biomedical research axis, to accelerate academic research, market access and industrialization, and have created an axis on prevention. We have also contributed to the creation of 5 bioclusters, 12 new university hospital institutes and 22 chairs of excellence. We are truly on our mission to accelerate the deployment of health innovations.
On the subject of bioproduction, that is, the manufacture of biomedicines, you say that half of the planned funding has been committed. How are things progressing?
The stakes are high, because France was lagging behind in this area. But we have gained a place in Europe in terms of biomedicines under development. We are now second, behind the United Kingdom but ahead of Germany. We are following innovative projects such as TreeFrog in cell therapies or Whitelab Genomics, a start-up that seeks to accelerate the development of drug targets through the use of AI. We must continue our efforts, and this is why we are interested in the entire value chain – including the bioproduction tool – with specific financing for both the development of new production processes and the expansion of capacities.
The State is thus supporting, in conjunction with the DGE, the CellForCure project, which Seqens took over from Novartis to make it a bioproduction subcontractor again. There is also a financing component to support the LFB in increasing its bioproduction capacities in Alès (Gard) or even support for companies that are developing new processes such as the company CellQuest, which miniaturizes bioprocesses, or the company Nétri with its organ-on-chip production plant. Things are moving forward, with several players.
For industrial projects, is it the AIS that triggers the financing?
No. The France Santé 2030 operator for financing remains Bpifrance, with whom we work closely.
At the end of summer 2023, the interministerial mission on the financing and regulation system for health products issued several conclusions. Has the AIS integrated certain recommendations from this mission?
We are piloting, with the DGE, the window dedicated to the relocation of mature drugs, but we are mainly piloting the implementation of the innovation axis. Our action plan focuses on access to innovation, for example everything related to early access to drugs as well as innovative medical devices, which therefore allow access to products that are not yet authorized on the market. What is unique in the world, early access only exists in France!
The agency also works on digital, such as the structuring of the national health data system and the development of new technologies. In reality, at each stage of the value chain, our objective is to try to compress all the phases. But without risks. The goal is to avoid loss of opportunity for patients. On the theme of clinical research, we work a lot on digitalization and decentralization, because optimization also involves the dissemination of innovation, for example to extend the care structures capable of developing or hosting innovations.
We always praise the quality of France’s brains and research, but not the lack of resources and the flight of innovations abroad, especially across the Atlantic. Do we have the means to change the situation?
We hope so. We have set up the Chair of Excellence in Health Innovation system, with 80 million euros dedicated to attracting researchers of international stature to lead projects over 5 years, with funding of 2 to 5 million euros per project. Our wish is to retain our researchers and also to attract those from abroad. There have already been 22 winners of this Chair of Excellence. Like the Franco-Algerian Yasmine Belkaid, who became Director General of the Pasteur Institute. Or the Italian epigeneticist Giacomo Cavalli for a Chair of Excellence in Montpellier.
How do you work on the subject of private funding which is still lacking in France and Europe in the field of biotechnologies in order to preserve innovation here?
This is the crux of the matter. We have set up, with France Biotech in particular, training on investing in biotech, medtech and digital health start-ups. The idea is to provide more visibility and reassurance on this type of investment – the characteristics of which remain long development times, even if it is faster in digital health. But it remains profitable. It is still necessary to be well aware of the issues and the opportunities, to know how to “de-risk” the projects as best as possible. We also try to put the players in touch, particularly at Choose France, where we work to put innovative project leaders in touch with big pharma and private investors.
And regarding the attractiveness of the territory for foreign laboratories, is it improving?
We are working with Business France on this subject to better explain and show to what extent the strategy in France, in terms of regulation, financing, and welcoming innovation, can meet the challenges. This is still sometimes not well understood from abroad. However, there are great examples such as the major industrial projects of Novo Nordisk in Chartres, Eli Lilly in Alsace and Evotec in Toulouse. And great operations such as TreeFrog with Vertex or Amolyt acquired by AstraZeneca. We now represent France at the annual BIO congress in the United States, to present the global strategy and show everything we do here.
The Agency exists to drive, inspire, set the pace, be the compass and guarantor of the strategic vision of health innovation in France, including internationally. Our goal is to succeed in ensuring that innovation is a real lever to transform our health system.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
