French drug research stuck in a rut, economists warn

Official advisory body explains how pharmaceutical innovation funding has failed to move with latest trends

France is lagging behind the global pharmaceutical transition from chemistry to biotechnology and genomics, with many funders continuing to finance outdated fields, according to France’s Council of Economic Analysis.

In a memorandum issued last week, the CAE said that French pharmaceutical research suffered from a lack of public funding, especially for university spin-outs. Such funding should, however, be reserved for clinical trials “with high standards of scientific proof”, the memorandum stated.