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Trade with Greece
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about 100 million euros, with more than 80% of
the value added produced domestically and with
the potential to exceed 400 million euros annual-
ly. We are now well-positioned to attract foreign
direct investment and put the conditions in place
for cross-border partnerships in the domestic
manufacturing of internationally recognised prod-
ucts. I firmly believe that the pharmaceutical
industry can take a quantum leap into the future,
and place itself even more prominently on the
European and global pharmaceutical map.
Our industry boasts many great leaders and very
competent scientists of international calibre. Why
should these talents have to work abroad? We
cannot, and will not, accept a return to the 1950s,
when there was no future for people who
remained in Greece. In the past, this ambitious
goal may have sounded unrealistic, but today,
thanks to investment in human capital and know-
how, our country can become a centre for phar-
maceutical research and production, through joint
projects of Greek firms with foreign counterparts
and international research centres. In this
respect, the setting-up of the ACCI Pharmaceutical
Forum Team (EPhForT) is a substantial initiative
aimed at better organising and providing support to
such efforts from all sides.
Pharmaceutical companies have accumulated
invaluable knowledge capital over time. And they
do not intend to fall back to the past, but rather to
breeze into the future. We can provide the “med-
icine” that the economy needs. If we set an exam-
ple, this will convey the message that Greece can
remain at the forefront of Europe instead of laps-
ing into a second tier of countries, host only to
relocated low-cost production and a dismantled
social state. We should not forget that what has
come to be known as the “European social
model” is being buffeted by the debt crisis all over
Europe, including the strong core countries. Its
only chance to survive and continue to provide a
future for citizens is by modernising the countries’
growth models, enabling them to secure the nec-
essary resources to sustain it.
It becomes clear that strengthening the produc-
tion potential of pharmaceutical companies, as
part of a broader strategy for turning Greece into
a centre for the research and development of
advanced products, is pivotal to shielding, safe-
guarding and expanding the hard-won social
gains of Greek citizens.
We cannot of course argue that the State is doing
its best to foster the economic reform that society
needs. Pharmaceutical companies face an
excessive tax burden, the fact that payments from
the State that are in arrears were already dis-
counted even before being brutally curtailed in
the context of the PSI, as well as the impact and
side-effects on the healthcare system from the
lack of technological modernisation, unreason-
able price squeezes and other bureaucratic
experimentation.
Nevertheless, we stand firmly in the ranks of opti-
mists. We always support modern, well-thought
out and win-win solutions that can emerge from
consultation with the State and can promote the
mutual interests of citizens, the State and phar-
maceutical companies.
This strategy will enable us to implement the nec-
essary changes that will allow the pharmaceutical
industry to grow dynamically and contribute to an
exit from the crisis and to building a truly
European, dynamic and confident Greece.