In front of almost 150 guests from politics, self-administration and industry, Schmid called for greater use to be made of the opportunities offered by these new therapies. He emphasized that these new therapies are accompanied by the hope that diseases that are currently untreatable or insufficiently treatable may even be curable in the future.
In his guest lecture, Prof. Dr. Toni Cathomen, Director of the Freiburg Institute for Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy, explained the status quo and prospects of these modern methods in Germany. He drew particular attention to the possibilities of genome editing, which have been brought into the limelight not least by the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to the discoverers. Cathomen also emphasized the importance of diagnostics: "The earlier we can diagnose a disease, the earlier therapy can begin. The two go hand in hand."
In the discussion that followed, Schmid continued: "Only comprehensive diagnostics can tell us with certainty whether the therapy is right and whether it will work. Our industry is opening the door to the medicine of the future." The fact that Germany is now falling further and further behind in international competition, even though it initially played a pioneering role, is a cause for concern. An innovation-friendly environment is therefore needed to promote research, development and production capacities for gene and cell therapy more strongly.
