Professor Timo Minssen, in recognition of his work in the field of legal challenges for innovative medicines, was invited to chair the discussions made on Innovative Medicine in research. He also gave a speech.
The event provided a great forum for exchanging recent knowledge and multidisciplinary developments regarding the challenges that innovation and healthcare face in a European setting. Healthcare innovation should not only be assessed from a scientific perspective, but also in the wider context whereby clinical benefits, economic / health-outcome improvements and the respect of patients’ rights are demonstrable and rewarded appropriately. Relevant legal issues related to Intellectual property (IP) does need to be addressed, taking into account the need to find the right balance between sharing information and creating competition. In this open Innovation strategy, all stakeholders, governments, policymakers and service providers, have to strike a delicate balance together between delivering high quality and accessible healthcare, while containing costs and putting patients first. To this aim cooperation and adequate legal frameworks taking into account societal, ethical, economic and human rights issues are essential. Following the advices of the scientific committee, the Conference offered a wide selection of distinguished speakers and interesting workshops.