€500m to push gene therapy

“We’ll invest in education and research because only this will secure prosperity,” said Michael Kretzschmar, author of a position paper of the Christian Democratic party CDU’s Expert Commission Research, which is set to determine the funding strategy of the government party. It determines the goal to invest 3.5% of Germany’s GDP (currently 3%) into R&D by 2021.

Furthermore, the authors of the paper promote a 10% tax exemption on R&D for big and small innovative companies up to €2m per company annually. This year a legal proposal, which aimed at limiting the tax advantage to SMEs, failed to reach a majority in parliament. 

Additionally, the Christian democrats want to boost technology transfer, particularly in hot topics such as cell and gene therapy.

Kretzschmar recommends to set up a €500m fund for gene therapy and CRISPR-based genome editing approaches. He also said he wanted to support translation of autologous stem cell therapies into the clinic.

The paper, however, says nothing on how the government wants to adapt the strict German data protection rules to enable international exchange of patient data in order to decipher disease mechanisms and find novel disease targets.