Belgium's govt R&D summit convened

Belgium's Prime Minster, Herman Van Rompuy, has convened a meeting of the Biopharmaceutical R7D Platform, due to what the country's  research-based pharmaceutical association, pharma.be, described as "a  context of serious economic crisis." Invitees to the summit included:  the Vice Prime Ministers; federal government ministers from concerned  departments of state; the Federal Medicines and Health Care Products  Agency (AFMPS); the National Institute for Health and Disability  Insurance (INAMI); and pharmaceutical representatives from pharma.be and  the Health Science & Technology Group.

The latter includes the major R&D investors in Belgium, notably US  health care giant Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceutica unit, US  drug behemoth Pfizer, UK-headquartered drug major GlaxoSmithKline  (which has a large vaccines research center at Rixensart) and  locally-based UCB.

Among the issues discussed at the event were the renewing of government  initiatives started in 2006 to support the life sciences sector, in  particular fiscal incentives via the AFMPS, which also led to the  establishment of biotechnology clusters and regional enterprise zones.