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BioImpact: Biotechnology for
patients
Presentation of the results of
BioImpact1, first scientific study on the impact of
biotechnology-derived medicines on the quality of life and life expectancy of
patients
Brussels, Paris, 10th
February 2005 – France Biotech (www.france-biotech.org
), the French Biotechnology Industry
Association and its partners, Europabio (www.europabio.org), European
Association of Bioindustries, Leem (the French pharmaceutical association
www.leem.org ) and LIR (International Research
Laboratories association www.lir.asso.fr), present the results of BioImpact,
first
scientific study that outlines the major advances achieved thanks to
biotechnology-derived medicines (monographs and
summary cards for non specialists available on
www.biompact.org).
Worldwide 300 million patients are being treated, or could be treated, by the 10
categories of biotechnology medicines described in
BioImpact. In France, 2 million patients are affected by the
pathologies covered in BioImpact and close to one million individuals2
are being or could be treated by BioImpact’s 10
biotech medicines.
The medicines studied offer efficient therapeutic solutions, especially in
fields where unmet medical needs are very high,
including cancer, inflammatory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, hepatitis,
neurological disorders, and rare diseases. These medicines improve the
quality of life and life expectancy of millions of
patients while offering them safer, more efficient medicines with reduced side
effects, and new therapeutic strategies for very
incapacitating illnesses which have gone untreated until the arrival of
biotechnology.
With 190 medicines and vaccines already available3 and more than 400 therapeutic
products under development in 2004, the socio-economic
impact of biotechnology is highly significant, although this is
also very difficult to quantify, in the absence of an unanimously
acceptable pharmaco-economic model and taking into
account the few cost-efficacy studies available today.
1 BioImpact is a study carried
out by doctors and pharmacists, under the scientific guidance of Dr Philippe
Cramer, Paediatrician, Entrepreneur and Vice-President of France Biotech,
and validated by a Steering Committee made up of
academic experts and scientific representatives of Europabio, Les Entreprises du
Médicament (French pharmaceutical industry association) and Laboratoires
Internationaux de Recherche (International Research
Laboratories association). The monographs presented summarise the most accurate
scientific data currently available on the causes and characteristics of
each disease, its associated complications,
numbers of patients and mortality, and compares traditional therapies
with biotechnological therapies available.
They are also presented in the
form of summaries to enable easy understanding by non-specialists.
2 Target populations according
to data from the Commission for Transparency at AFSSAPS (French agency for
the sanitary safety of health products), that is, the number of patients
in the indication mentioned for Full Market Approval (FMA).
3 Sources : BIO, PhRMA, 2003 BioImpact press release 2
Qualitative advances have however been clearly identified in BioImpact
and these are presented in the
descriptive sheets and in the monographs available on
www.bioimpact.org :
1 – Biotech offers new and more efficient therapeutic weapons for diseases which
are either poorly treated or not treated at all
• Advances in knowledge about the role of TNF alpha in the development of
inflammatory lesions associated with rheumatoid
polyarthritis and Crohn’s disease have enabled the emergence of new
medicines, the anti-TNF alphas, have shown very significant results in
these pathologies;
• Interferon alpha is today the only medicine which can effectively cure 1/3 of
patients suffering from hepatitis C; it is also
effective in treating hepatitis B;
• Thrombolytics, if administered sufficiently early, can considerably reduce
death by heart attack and stroke;
• Interferon beta is today the only treatment which has a real impact in curbing
the degenerative process of multiple sclerosis, the
2nd cause of neurological disability in young adults: it reduces
disease relapses by 30% and thus slows its
progression.
2 Biotech’s–recombinant
medicines increase product safety (recombinant Factor VIII for
Haemophilia or recombinant human Growth Hormones for growth deficiency)
3 – In the treatment of diabetes or cancer (monoclonal antibodies) biotech’s
better targeted therapies reduce side effects and
improve on existing treatments.
4- Biotech enables large-scale production techniques for better medical coverage
(hepatitis B Vaccine, growth hormones, Factor VIII)
Finally, pharmacogenomics will help better identify patients, according to their
genetic profile, who are likely to respond best to
certain types of treatments, and this is a particular advantage in giving more
appropriate prescriptions, in reducing side effects and in improving the
efficiency of existing treatments.
BioImpact highlights major advances made thanks to years of research.
Biomedicines and other biotechnologies represent a
large and growing segment of innovative medicines (35 to 40 % of the
authorizations for commercialization in 2003). Many of these molecules
were developed in the United States. To guarantee
continued access to the most innovative care, it is vital to create an
optimal environment for the discovery and
development of such biotech medicines in Europe.
Contact
France Biotech
Angelita de Francisco, Secretary-General
Tel: +33 (0)1 56 58 10 70
contact@france-biotech.org
Press contacts
For France Biotech For Europabio
Alize Public Relations Adeline Farrelly
Caroline Carmagnol Communications Director
Tel: + 33 (0)6 64 18 99 59 Tel: +32 2 735 03 13
caroline.carmagnol@wanadoo.fr
a.farrelly@europabio.org
For the Leem For the LIR
Stéphanie Fleurot MEDIAL Consulting
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 03 88 38 Françoise Pinto
Sfleurot@leem.org
Tel: +33 (0)1 53 83 81 57
francoise.pinto@medial-consulting.com
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