Sanofi: the Patient Council is stepping up efforts to promote the value of innovation and access to treatment

In a highly turbulent geopolitical context, and faced with the growing strength of pharmaceutical giants supported either directly by public funds (China) or by protectionist measures (US), Sanofi is accelerating the process it has established with patient organisations, so that their voices, their unmet needs and the priorities they have identified can reach institutional decision-makers directly – not only in Italy but across Europe. Established in 2023, the Patient Council has organised regular meetings focusing on issues such as timely access to new medicines, the value of new technologies, and the ability to attract clinical trials and productive investment. This year, it has taken a further step forward by involving the Luiss Business School and adopting an approach based on a new perspective: viewing health as an asset capable of generating value not only for individual patients, but for the healthcare sector and the country as a whole.

“Today more than ever, we must recognise health as a driver of growth,” says Marcello Cattani, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sanofi Italia and Malta. “Innovation means creating value, but innovation only fully achieves its objective when it becomes accessible to people.” Italia lags behind its main competitors: 441 days is the average time between the approval of a medicine at European level and its actual availability to patients in Italy, due to the subsequent national and regional procedures regarding pricing and reimbursement. And Europe is lagging behind the United States, which, through its Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, is set to attract $650 billion in research and production over the next 5–10 years, whilst China is set to become the leader in the number of Phase 1 trials as early as 2027.

“The contribution of patient organisations,” explains Cattani, “is essential in helping us to understand needs and priorities and to develop, together with the institutions and all stakeholders in the system, responses capable of generating a tangible and sustainable impact, moving beyond the ideological bias that fails to recognise health as a driver of growth.”

Yet the Italian pharmaceutical industry is growing faster than the European average, underpins national exports, and invests in research and production, playing an increasingly strategic role not only for health, but also for the country’s economic growth and security. This is highlighted by Matteo Caroli, Associate Dean for Sustainability and Impact at Luiss Business School, who states that “in the delicate geopolitical phase we are currently experiencing, which is dragging us into the worst conditions of the last 45 years, we have all the expertise needed to continue growing”.

This vision has given rise to some of the key themes at the heart of the Sanofi–Patient Associations–Luiss Business School initiative: innovation as a driver of value and access to innovation, so that the value generated can be made available to patients, citizens and the healthcare system in a swift, equitable and sustainable manner.