In the consciousness of Greek society, a drug produced abroad and bearing the signature of a well-known pharmaceutical company is more reliable. Nevertheless, the Greek pharmaceutical industry has been intensely active in research and innovation for years.
Moderator
Christos Kolonas, journalist
Experts
Tryfon Theodoros, President PEF, Co-CEO ELPEN
Kyriaki Bakirtzis, Scientific Director EERC, ELPEN Group
Dr. Dimitris Iliopoulos, Member of the Board of AthensLifeTech Park of Elpen
Shouting day February 8, 2023
In the consciousness of Greek society, a drug produced abroad and bearing the signature of a well-known pharmaceutical company is more reliable. Nevertheless, the Greek pharmaceutical industry has been intensely active in research and innovation for years.
- How can the perception surrounding Greek medicine be changed and society as a whole be convinced?
- What strategies have been implemented so far and with what results?
- In what ways can research and innovation in the field of medicine in Greece overall strengthen our country's development rate?
- Has research and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry reached the point where we are exporting Greek medicines? What did it take to get to this level?
- What were the opportunities and what were the challenges?
- How does the Greek pharmaceutical industry participate in Brain Gain?
- Are there any best practices?
Christos Kolonas is a journalist specializing in financial reporting.
He is the editor-in-chief of the financial news website ot.gr (Economic Post) and has been writing for the newspapers TA NEA and TO VIMA for the last five years. He covers business reporting and, more specifically, the energy, industry, and construction sectors.
He has been engaged in journalism continuously for the last 29 years, with a break of 18 months to fulfill his military obligations.
He has collaborated with many media. His longest professional career was at ETHNOS and IMERISIA newspapers. At the same time, his career stands out for his collaborations with the once-powerful news radio station Flash 96 and, until two years ago, with the financial news website Euro2day.gr.
In 2018, Christos Kolonas was awarded the "Economic Reporting" Special Award by the Botsi Foundation.
He is a graduate of IIEK Journalism and, specifically, the Athens Center for Journalism and Communication.
Theodore E. Tryfon was born in Mytilini – Lesvos. He graduated from Athens College of Greece and earned his BSc in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Southampton in the UK. He continued his studies by earning an MBA from City University of London Business School.
In 1992 he joined Elpen Pharmaceutical Co. and presently is the Vice President and co/CEO of ELPEN Group. In 2022, ELPEN Group had a turnover of 300,000,000€ and a workforce of more than 1,350 employees. Since 2023, in addition to the three production units at Pikermi, Attikis, ELPEN also operates a new 12,000 m2 Development and Manufacturing facility in Keratea, Attikis.
ELPEN is leading in the pharmaceutical market, exporting to over 90 countries, and has the most considerable Research, Training, and Experimental Center in the Greek Pharmaceutical Industry.
Since 2014, Mr. Tryfon has been elected President of the Panhellenic Union of Pharmaceutical Industries (PEF), an association representing 49 companies with 45 production sites throughout Greece. In 2019 he became a Member of the Board of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) and a Member of the Board of Directors of Medicines for Europe, the European Association representing the European Generic and Value Added Medicines Industry.
Dr. Bakirtzi is a Biologist, Biochemist. She worked at the Department of Electronic Structure and Lasers of FORTH, Crete, and moved to Boston University Medical School with a full scholarship for her Ph.D. studies. She continued as a Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA School of Medicine. In 2011 and 2017, she received the 3rd and 1st World Research Prize at the Digestive Disease Week World Conference. Since 2014 she has been a first and second-level Assistant Project Scientist and Project Manager at the UCLA Center for Systems Biomedicine, winning two Young Investigator awards and funding from the NIH and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.
Dr. Iliopoulos is a member of the board of Athens LifeTech Park and
the founder and CEO of Athos Therapeutics Inc, based in Los Angeles (USA), develops new treatments for autoimmune diseases with the help of artificial intelligence algorithms. He was a professor at Harvard Medical School, the anti-cancer center Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and UCLA University School of Medicine, where he founded and directed the Center for Systems Biomedicine (UCLA Center for Systems Biomedicine). He received an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and has studied economics at Stanford University and artificial intelligence at MIT. He has significant activity in new drug development for various types of cancer and autoimmune diseases. He has received awards from international organizations such as the US National Institute of Research (USA) and the Eli & Edythe Broad Foundation.
