Innovation in healthcare comes at a cost, but this should be viewed as a wise strategic investment and not merely a financial burden. That’s the view of Giulia Conti, country president of Novartis Ireland, who says Ireland needs to realise the true value of innovation.
“It’s an investment in patient outcomes, in healthcare system sustainability, but also in Ireland’s long-term attractiveness,” says Conti.
She points to oncology as an example of an area where innovation is occurring at a blistering rate. As a result, health systems can find themselves struggling to keep pace.
“In oncology right now, both across Europe and globally, we are moving beyond incremental improvement towards entirely new therapeutic platforms that are changing how some of the most complex cancers are treated,” says Conti. “Pipelines across the industry are becoming richer and richer and more sophisticated every year.”
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In Ireland, she points out, one in five people will develop cancer in their lifetime. But despite the pace of scientific progress, access to cutting-edge therapies is far from a given.
“Today, only around 20-25 per cent of cancer medicines approved at European level are reimbursed and available to Irish patients, and patients wait almost two years on average after European Medicines Agency approval,” Conti says.
And as cancer treatment becomes more targeted and tailored to the individual patient, these systemic challenges begin to crystallise. One example is that of radioligand therapy (RLT), a highly targeted cancer treatment where a radioligand binds to specific cancer cells and delivers radiation directly to them.
“From a healthcare system perspective, it can look complex, because it requires co-ordination, infrastructure and specialised pathways,” Conti explains. RLTs are popping up in a number of industry pipelines, and more indications are expected beyond oncology. Yet access to this groundbreaking therapy for the patients who will benefit is not guaranteed, Conti warns.
“Oncology innovation is moving forward, and healthcare systems need to evolve in parallel,” she says. “If systems don’t modernise, we risk creating a two‑speed Europe – countries where patients can access advanced therapies, and others where patients consistently wait longer, not because innovation doesn’t exist, but because systems are not ready to absorb it.”
Conti believes innovation needs to be approached on an end‑to‑end basis, with all stakeholders working collaboratively. She adds Ireland now has a golden opportunity, with the upcoming European presidency, to show our leadership in the innovation space. “We need to make sure that we are able to align our system readiness with scientific progress and ensure that innovation translates into time and equitable patient benefit.”
Partner to the healthcare ecosystem
Novartis also has a crucial role to play when it comes to making this a reality, driving multidisciplinary conversations and offering a voice to those on the margins, she adds. “We need to take responsibility for making the system work because our role as leaders goes beyond developing medicine. It’s about being a long-term partner to the healthcare ecosystem and it’s our duty now to be active and proactive.”
A key example is how Novartis has supported stakeholders, including clinicians, patient groups, and policymakers, to come together and create a white paper on advanced cancer therapies. This will be launched by key cancer stakeholders in conjunction with the Health Policy Partnership (HPP) on May 19th and will give key recommendations to build a future-ready cancer care in Ireland. “This is a great example of partnership in action,” Conti says.
As a pharmaceutical company involved in R&D, Novartis must also continue to generate and translate evidence, not only from clinical trials, but real-world evidence that can inform and sustain the future design of our healthcare system. “We need to trigger the usage of technology, AI and data for better patient management,” says Conti. “This is always with clinicians in the driving seat, but we need to use technology to help the system to overcome bottlenecks and enable a smarter allocation of resources.”
In oncology right now, both across Europe and globally, we are moving beyond incremental improvement towards entirely new therapeutic platforms that are changing how some of the most complex cancers are treated
Novartis is already collaborating with innovative Irish companies in the technology space; one example is its partnership with Deciphex, a Dublin-based digital pathology company. “This is a great example because it illustrates how local innovation and global scale corporate companies can come together in applying AI to support pathology and research processes, as well as strengthening the overall ecosystem.” With clearer frameworks for structured public‑private collaboration, Conti adds that Ireland’s strengths in the relevant areas could be connected far more effectively for the benefit of patients.
These advances in innovation and partnership are ultimately powered by people. As an employer, Novartis also seeks to be innovative, Conti says. “I am very proud that in Novartis our leadership reflects very much equal gender opportunities with female representation over 50 per cent.” This isn’t the end of its journey when it comes to equal gender representation, however. “We have launched the Accelerated Women Leadership Programme in which our focus is not to fix skills, not to create new capabilities, but to help the younger generation to own their career journey with clarity, confidence, and sustainability,” she explains. “We need to work intentionally to remove structural barriers for women to excel in their own career pathway all along the journey.”
The company is also investing strongly in future‑ready capabilities. “Through our AI Advantage programme, we are building AI fluency through hands‑on learning and practical application but always guided by a clear principle: AI augments science; it does not replace scientific judgment,” Conti says. “It is our people who ultimately enable us to be a trusted partner to the healthcare system and a front‑runner in innovation. With the upcoming presidency, Ireland has the opportunity to lead. Working together, we can turn scientific momentum into value for patients and society”.
