Italy is an excellence in research: today it is in eighth place in the world for the quality of scientific publications measured through the impact factor. We are in the biotech elite. But we 'fall' in the transition from the publication of studies to the realization of patents: in 2011 we filed 109, France 390, Germany 922. A ratio of 1 to 3 and even 1 to 9".
This was underlined by Riccardo Palmisano, vice president of Assobiotec, participating in the 3rd Health Summit in Italy in Rome. "The answer to the title of this round table, namely 'Healthcare as a driver of growth and development: a possible goal?' – he underlined – is that yes, this is not only a possible goal, but a dutiful and unmissable one.Biotech, for example, brings 5 workers to related industries for each direct worker, against an average of 1-1.5 for the rest of the Italian manufacturing industry.
Yet development plans for biotechnologies are not seen. It is often repeated - added Palmisano - that the 50% of the drugs that will arrive on the market will be biotech, but in half of the cases they are the result of collaboration with universities or spin-offs. The world of research has changed, we must seize the opportunities it offers us by boosting incentives, for which today Italy is in last place among the 8 main European countries. One example above all: a company has informed us that in Italy in 2009-2010 it obtained a tax credit of 1.6 million euros, in France of 16 million.
There is room for biotech to leverage the excellence of Italian research and productivity - he concluded - but we need a system that provides incentives to invest, to ensure that small Italian businesses do not die before they have grown".
Barbara Di Chiara – October 24, 2012 – PharmaKronos
