Wired Future Lab, the format of free digital experience and open to all, is back with a new appointment that focuses on innovation in the pharmaceutical sector and the importance of off-patent, biosimilar and equivalent drugs to make healthcare spending more sustainable and respond to the health needs of citizens more effective and in particular of cancer patients.

The second appointment, scheduled for Monday 8 November from 2.30 pm to 4.15 pm in streaming on the dedicated website, is organized in collaboration with Viatris, a new model of a global company operating in the health sector (born in 2020 from the merger of Mylan and Upjohn), and also present in Italy, whose portfolio includes more than 1,400 quality products in a wide range of areas therapeutic, which treat both infectious diseases and chronic non-communicable diseases, including iconic and global brands, biosimilar equivalent drugs, parapharmaceuticals and consumer health. Viatris' mission is to enable people around the world to live healthier lives at every stage.

This is why the company has decided to launch the Innovability project at the service of oncology, whose primary objective, as the word itself says, is to achieve innovation, therefore the introduction of new systems and new criteria, through sustainability, indispensable to guarantee the well-being of the current generation without compromising that of future generations. This can allow significant savings, both for the single hospital and more generally for the health system, to be reinvested in personnel, services and assistance, offering multidisciplinarity and keeping the debate on off-patent, biosimilar and generic drugs alive.

As part of Wired Future Lab, Laura Borgna, Head of Hospital Business Unit and Policy & Market Access of Viatris, will illustrate the Group's vision and strategy in the field of biosimilar and equivalent drugs, also for the purpose of promoting sustainability in oncology. The discussion becomes more urgent also in light of the current situation: due to the lack of screening in time of a pandemic, the risk is that many neoplasms are and will be identified at a more advanced stage and more resources will be needed to treat patients with more complex diagnoses. because they are late. Furthermore, in the next few years, several standard biologics will lose patent protection, with related impacts on the potential growth of biosimilars.

The state of the art in Italy and Europe will also be addressed in the round table with Francesco Perrone, Director of the Complex Clinical Trials Structure of the National Cancer Institute Pascale of Naples and member of the National Board of Aiom (Italian Association of Medical Oncology), Julie Marécha-Jamil, Director of Biosimilars Policy & Science of Medicines for Europe, Rosa Giuliani, oncologist at The Clatterbridge Cancer Center in Liverpool. In 2006 the EU authorized the first biosimilar medicine but how does the picture evolve fifteen years later in terms of use and impact on national health systems? Furthermore, in November 2020, the Commission adopted the Pharmaceutical Strategy which aims to modernize the regulatory framework in this area and, among its four pillars, to guarantee patients access to cheap medicines and answers to unmet medical needs (in particular in the fields of antimicrobial resistance, cancer, rare diseases) protecting the financial sustainability of health systems (it is currently under public consultation).

The consultations will bring together the opinions of the public and interested parties, therefore of different stakeholders: communication and perception of opinion are at the center of the third and final segment of the event with a comparison between Anna Lisa Mandorino, General Secretary of Cittadinanzattiva, and Silvia Bencivelli, science journalist and radio and television presenter. The world of scientific communication and associations dialogue on the needs of citizens in terms of well-being and health, on awareness and on existing practices: in 2020, according to data from Egualia (formerly Assogenerici), biosimilar products recorded an increase in consumption of 10 , 4% compared to the previous twelve months, in a scenario where the consumption picture is diversified but stable and in which biosimilars dominate above all in the North.