Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - September 2008 - (Page 10) The Battle for Bio EuropaBio’s position as the voice of the European biotech industry is being challenged by a new kid on the block. Reflector reports. A 12 Strategy Fundamentals Applying VRIO competencies in your business. 14 BioFutures Gerhard Symons’s second report on pharma in Russia. 16 Critical Vision Jacky Law joins Pharm Exec Europe as a columnist. 18 Executive Profile Pharm Exec Europe talks to NNIT’s CEO, Per Kogut. Angelo Cavall/Getty Images s summer deepens, a bidding war is breaking out between the two main European industry associations defending biotech firms — intensified by a shift in leadership at the top. EuropaBio, the older of the two organisations, claims to be “the European association of bioindustries — the voice of the industry,” and to “represent the industry towards the European institutions so that legislation encourages and enables biotechnology companies in Europe to innovate and provide for society's unmet needs using life sciences.” Its newer rival, European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises (EBE), initially set up to promote the interest of smaller firms, claims that maintaining the future strength and competitive capacity of biopharmaceutical innovation in Europe in the future is its mission. EuropaBio scored a major coup last year by attracting European heavyweight Peter Mandelson, the European Union commissioner for Trade, to speak at its annual conference — capturing headlines on the strength of Mandelson's outspoken defence of biotech at a time when EU support for this area is, to say the least, ambiguous. But this year EuropaBio, distracted by the departure of its secretary general and the search for a replacement, didn't even hold an annual conference, and still less did it field a big name in its support. Keen to poach members in an increasingly competitive market, European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises is now claiming to be “the voice of both larger biopharmaceutical corporations and small and medium-sized biotechnology companies operating in Europe.” It currently has 66 member companies “and a successful track record of achievements.” “One major success” that it claims as “the culmination of EBE advocacy” was “the rapid adoption of a new EU regulation for advanced therapies” — due to come into effect at the end of this year. It says it has “also contributed substantial inputs for the development of a new European strategy on rare diseases.” EBE also claims credit for helping “the establishment of a robust science-based EU approval framework for biosimilars,” and insists that “a number of issues remain to be addressed” — on which it is working “on behalf of the innovator industry.” Now EBE has a new unique selling proposition for attracting additional members: it is a specialised group within the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), which is cofunding a €2 billion public–private partnership with the European
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.