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Institut Mérieux

IM

Institut Mérieux, a family holding company, is contributing its experience in biology to improve medicine and public health across the globe.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan

3 Mar 2020

Institut Mérieux welcomes the Roadmap on “Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan”, and its holistic and citizen/patient-centred approach. We agree on the lack of health policies and holistic interventions regarding prevention. Especially in relation to lifestyle choices, further studies are needed to demonstrate the link between microbiota (deteriorated by medicines like antibiotics, food/dietary habits including alcohol consumption, psychological and environmental stressors) and cancer. First evidence seem to show a link between the microbiota and environmental stressors (including carcinogenic substances in food, air, water, but also frequent antibiotic consumption). Environmental stressors have to be identified and eliminated through better policies/regulation for food, air, water safety, as well as prudent use of antibiotics. The routes of communication between the microbiota and brain are slowly being unravelled, and include the vagus nerve, gut hormone signaling, the immune system, among others. Nutrition is one of the most important modifying factors of the microbiota-gut-brain axis. On the other hand, psychosocial stress seems to influence the microbiota, and the immune system’s ability to fight off antigens is reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections. Stress can also have an indirect effect on the immune system as a person may use unhealthy behavioural coping strategies such as drinking and smoking. Elimination of environmental stressors, improved microbiota / healthy diet and stress reduction programmes could thus have positive outcomes regarding cancer prevention, but also recovery, risk of relapse and quality of life. Microbiota signatures are being explored in several cancers in order to allow for earlier diagnosis and less invasive diagnostic approaches. Thus, microbiota characterisation will most likely play an important role in the future of cancer diagnosis. This implies logistical challenges to be addressed for storing of data sets and better regulation for microbiota research. Overall, more personalised diagnostic is needed for early stage cancer detection and improved patient treatment efficacy. In terms of cancer treatment, microbiota will play a dual role: 1) determine whether microbiota signatures improve patient stratification by either identifying patients who are more likely to respond or less likely to suffer from significant side effects, 2) preclinical and clinical evidence are showing that the active modulation of the patient’s microbiota might promote efficacy and/or decrease toxicity. Regarding cancer treatment, we also underline the importance to link this cancer plan with the EU action against AMR. Antibiotic resistant infections and sepsis can have devastating effects for vulnerable cancer patients. Cancer treatment like chemotherapy destructs important immune cells and therefore increases the risk of infection, delaying essential cancer treatment, threatening its effectiveness and increasing patient suffering. There is also a need for technology innovation to help to reduce manufacturing costs and increase access to biological therapies including virally based drugs. Improvement of manufacturing technologies would allow to reduce associated costs; better pre-clinical models would allow to avoid clinical failure related to efficacy and toxicology issues. In order to improve the quality of life, we also suggest to focus on the development of immunotherapies with higher tolerance and less adverse events. Development of human tissue-based microphysiological systems would help to better predict which drug candidates will be successful in a first-human trial, with better toxicology profile. Pre-clinical innovation is also mandatory. For all these activities, patient associations need to be actively involved. Last but not least, companies should be supported in implementing healthy environments for cancer prevention, and reintegrating cancer patients in the workplace.
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Meeting with Michel Barnier (Head of Task Force Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom)

27 Apr 2018 · Meeting with the Task Force for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50 TEU

Response to Protecting citizens against health threats

23 Apr 2018

Institut Mérieux, the French-based holding of the Mérieux group, lends its experience in industrial biology to the service of medicine and public health across the globe. In order to combat infectious diseases and cancers, it devises and develops complementary solutions in the fields of diagnostics, immunotherapy, food safety and nutrition. Through its 3 bio-industrial companies, bioMérieux (world leader in clinical and industrial microbiology), Transgene and Mérieux NutriSciences, and working closely with its innovation-focused entities (Mérieux Développement and ABL Inc.). Institut Mérieux welcomes this roadmap and the priority that the EC gives to the fight against infectious diseases in a globalized world, including a One Health approach (humans, animals, food, plants and water). Europe has an important role to play, in the framework of the Health programme, R&I framework for health, digital and food safety, the Development policy, but also the Security and Defense policy. Diagnostics are crucial in mitigating the effect of disease outbreaks, as they are essential for their surveillance and detection. Because diagnostic development and validation are time consuming, they should be carried out in anticipation of epidemics rather than in response to them. The response to the 2014–15 Ebola epidemic was slow and expensive, especially because of the lack of diagnostics use. Even if tests were available (e.g. FilmArray BioThreat-E test), their uptake was hindered by regulatory mechanisms as well as reimbursement and payment issues. If a focused mechanism had existed with the technical and financial resources to drive development and uptake of diagnostics ahead of the outbreak, it could have been managed more effectively. Interoperability of infectious diseases’ related datasets, big data analytics and artificial intelligence are important measures. The development of true POC platforms for NAAT tests and immunoassays encompasses connectivity for rapid, efficient, reliable result communication and traceability. For the development and validation of new tests, it is crucial to have a network of geographically diverse (including LMIC, India, China) and collaborative clinical labs available who share standardized and well-characterized biobanks for clinical specimens, organisms and interfering substances and develop and validate new diagnostic assays using “real” patients in order to validate true “in the field” clinical performance. Sources for “raw materials” like monoclonal antibodies of sufficient specificity, purified immune-reactive antigens, primers/probes for NAAT, must be established in advance. A master list of BSL3 and BSL4 labs in which diagnostic development work can be scheduled urgently should be available. In order to make sure that innovative diagnostic tests are taken up, it is crucial that the European Union develops harmonized and accepted regulatory mechanisms for urgent approval of emergency diagnostic tests. The same system should ideally be in place in Asia, Africa, and the US. Moreover, incentives, funding and reimbursement systems should be in place that allow Member States and LMIC to purchase effective diagnostic tests. In order for innovative lab tests to be efficient, national human, animal and food quality-control programmes, education programmes for laboratory professionals and surveillance programmes need to be implemented at global level, including LMIC. Especially LMIC lack quality clinical, veterinary and food control laboratories, diagnostic capacities and surveillance networks. Without the identification of pivotal partners to solve the “supply chain issues” in advance (cold chain, shipping, storage, distribution), diagnostics cannot be used in countries and areas where they are needed. The EU should make sure that infectious disease preparedness has a high priority on international agendas like the G7/G20 and becomes a high priority mission to be addressed during the next FP9.
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