BIO Deutschland attends National Associations Council, Healthcare Council and EuropaBio board meeting

EuropaBio’s National Associations Council (NAC) convened for the first time in 2017 in mid-March in Brussels. BIO Deutschland participated in the meeting. In addition to a change in personnel – Matt Moran from BioPharmaChem (Ireland) took the reins from Ricardo Gent from DIB (Germany) as chair of the NAC – the following topics were discussed:

  • Establishment of a new working group on new technologies
  • Biotech patent law in the EU
  • Progress on approval procedures for innovative plants
  • Possible EU Commission-led revision of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy
  • Activities of EuropaBio’s Healthcare Council
  • Preparation of a report on the European biotech industry

The next NAC meeting is scheduled for the summer (late June).

The European health experts on EuropaBio’s Healthcare Council (HC) also convened in Brussels in late March. Topics on the agenda included deliberations on the restructuring of the HC, the potential impact of Brexit on the biotech industry and a discussion with Robert Madelin (who previously served as advisor to Antonio Tajani, former EU commissioner and new president of the EU Parliament). In the past few weeks, the HC overhauled its structure in order to sharpen the Council’s profile ahead of European Parliament elections. Looking forward, the HC aims to back up topics with concrete examples from the real world, so as to be able to have more effective dialogue with EU policymakers and to develop practice-oriented solutions for identified issues. On the topic of Brexit, British members and Nathalie Moll, secretary general of EuropaBio, reported on their discussions with public officials (British government and EU Commission). The clear message, they said, was that the biotech industry, like all others, must prepare for a “hard” Brexit, adding that research and development in the United Kingdom will be hit particularly hard. The discussion with Robert Madelin helped provide an understanding of the EU Commission’s long-term policy objectives.

The next HC meeting is scheduled for the summer (late June).

Peter Heinrich, chairman of the board of BIO Deutschland and board member of EuropaBio, was elected to succeed Tom Sailor as chair of the SME Platform. It was also announced that Nathalie Moll, longstanding secretary general of EuropaBio, would be stepping down on 1 April and that the search for a successor is underway.

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