-Synthesis of 4th part-
Catherine Deroche, President of the French Senate committee on Cancer. The Committee has been created last year further to the seminar exceptionnally agreed by Senate President Gerard Larcher. This is a general cancer group, focused on pediatry.
A special work will be done to improve the links with the Committee at National Assembly as well as a work on the current obstacles.
« Facing more and more accurate and costly innovations, if we want not to loose any opportunity and have a better coverage and more equality, we will have to make choices and define new priorities. »
Mrs Faure, President of the National Assembly Committee on Cancer, said that she will go on fighting with the associations, to find investments for research. A second meeting with the Minister Thierry Mandon will take place shortly.
Professor Norbert Ifrah, President at INCa (National Cancer Institute).
INCa has shown with projects eSMART and PAIR pediatry that it is possible to work together.
« We are just at the beginning and even if we are in the right direction, the road will be long ».
« The searchers, the patients, the families, everyone needs support ».
« We have to make sure that budgets provided to care and research will not decrease ».
« Research is not an expense, it is an investment ».
Jean-Christophe Barland, General Manager at BMS France : « we have to recognise the increasing effort done by industrials in pediatric oncology ».
At BMS, there are different types of actions :
Therapeutic trials in pediatric oncology, partnerships with academics and centers of excellence, the support to basic research through the BMS foundation (this year, over 18 projetcs, 4 were about pediatric oncology).
BMS also decided to make available its incubators, what has led to the creation of U-LINK and ELIOT projects.
Moreover, one of the LEEM’s cancer group priority (pharmaceutical french industries) is pediatric oncology. Consultation phase of the stakeholders has started, in order to create a platform to make things move.
« France has a role to play on pediatric oncology, as well as in the industrial groups. We think that LEEM’s action in France will also help to influence industrial politics and industrial policies at a European level. »
Franck Dufour, Scientific Director at the ARC Foundation for the Research, has reminded the strong pediatric orientation taken by the Foundation since 2014, with the creation inside the Scientific Council, of an ad-hoc committee with specific experts in pediatric oncology.
The ARC Foundation has continued to support the basic research development, has financed MAPPYACT (2015) and ESMART (2016). Systematically, for every research program, the ARC Foundation studies the development relevance in pediatry.
In 2017, the ARC Foundation, together with the French National Cancer League and the National Cancer Institute, will co-finance the pediatric PAIR program with a budget of 5 Millions Euros.
Other projects are studied like the help in accessing the clinical trials, the information, the ethic and the after-cancer.
Marie-Hélène Nguyen, President of Children Cancer Health Federation : « to have a global action, I would like to ask to all parents associations to gather into a Foundation that we are ready to create with all of them, in order to increase our incomes and our strength to talk to public authorities, decision makers, doctors. »
At the end of this 4th part, the major actions to take are :
– To define with the Cancer Committee at Senate the obstacles to raise funds and possible financing.
– To keep on working with pharmaceutical industries and the LEEM on actions to take in France and in Europe.
– To work with the Associations and other involved parties on a possible consolidation of investments to boost research.
