Medicine, there is no stopping progress!

Innovation in health must have two objectives: to invent new ways of preventing, curing or treating diseases; and to ensure that they are accessible to all those who need them. Innovations may concern medicines, new diagnostic or therapeutic medical devices, or the organisation of care. Innovation is part of a complex eco-system, which links basic research, applied research and development. Investments are often very costly and always uncertain, and the target market is potentially global. Many public policies are directly aimed at promoting relevant innovations, or affect the research and development process: funding of basic research, support for transfers from academic research to industrial development, subsidies or tax incentives for R&D, intellectual property rights, methods of evaluating new health products, mechanisms for setting prices and access conditions, etc. How can France, once on the frontier of medical research, and Europe, regain their position?