Danish delegation, Inpi and Fiocruz discuss innovation in Health

Delegations from the Danish government and the National Institute of Industrial Property (Inpi) visited Fiocruz last Wednesday (4/6) as part of cooperation activities for innovation in Health between Brazil and the European country. The cooperation relationship is in phase 2, dedicated to the health issue, and, following an invitation from Inpi, Fiocruz has been participating in the project. The Foundation's delegations and representatives met in the morning when they discussed issues such as vaccine development and production and cooperation agreements. After the meeting, there was a visit to the immunizing factory of the Institute of Technology in Immunobiological (Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz).

The delegations discussed issues such as vaccine development and production and cooperation agreements (Image: Pedro Paulo Gonçalves)

“I was impressed with the work done at Fiocruz, I did not know there was so much diversity and vaccines production underway. It is very encouraging to know, for example, what can happen with the development of the messenger RNA vaccine [against COVID-19, currently in a pre-clinical stage]”, commented, after the visit, Sune Sørensen, Director General of the Patent Office and Danish Brands (DKPTO), who added: “I believe we have many future possibilities for cooperation in innovation”.

The Brazil-Denmark cooperation aims to strengthen ties between Brazilian and Danish institutions, in addition to promoting innovation networks formation. Also in this project, as far as Fiocruz is concerned, other activities are planned, such as a Café with Innovation to present the Foundation's technologies to potential partners in the European country.

“Fiocruz has evolved and is far ahead of Brazilian legislation in the intellectual property area. When the COVID-19 pandemic came, the Foundation innovated, making technology transfers, cooperation agreements, and showed that, to address public health, global cooperation is a very important mechanism and that, between researchers and applied science institutions, it is what prevails under economic relations”, observed Claudio Furtado, president of Inpi, who highlighted Fiocruz as a “truly global institution, which dignifies applied science and public health in Brazil”.

The fight against COVID-19 was also contemplated in the speech of the vice president of Production and Innovation in Health at Fiocruz, Marco Krieger, when starting the meeting and presenting the main lines of the Foundation action. “We are currently in a very good position, receiving support from the Ministry of Health and society as a whole, which leads us to innovate more and more in the Brazilian health system.” Still at the meeting, he added: “We work with innovation, we strive to have the best agreements with companies, pharmaceutical companies, international organizations. On the other hand, we need to look at social issues and care for people who need the medicine, the vaccine....”

The delegations from Denmark and Inpi visited Fiocruz (Image: Pedro Paulo Gonçalves)

In the Danish delegation, there was also the Søren Christian Thomsen presence, from the DKPTO International Projects and Terkel Borg, from the Danish Embassy in Brazil. The Inpi delegation was also made up of Vinicius Bogéa Câmara, coordinator of articulation and promotion of IP and Innovation, and Renata Ribas, international relations analyst.

As representatives of Fiocruz, there were Denise Lobo, communication coordinator for Bio-Manguinhos; Daniel Godoy, chief of staff at Bio-Manguinhos; Carla Maia Einsiedler, coordinator of Technological Management at Fiocruz (Gestec/VPPIS); Adriana Britto, patent area manager at Gestec/VPPIS; Érica Vieira, patent analyst, financial area manager and substitute coordinator at Gestec/VPPIS; Cíntia Reis, coordinator of the intellectual property consultancy and technology transfer of Bio-Manguinhos and Ilka Maria Vilardo, coordinator of cooperation with Europe at the Center for International Relations in Health (Cris/Fiocruz).

Brazil-Denmark Cooperation

The project that gave rise to this Wednesday's visit began with a cooperation agreement with Denmark established by Inpi for a project to create innovation networks between Brazilian and Danish institutions. In this project, there are three business areas: agribusiness, renewable energy and health – an area to which Fiocruz was invited by the national institute to be part of this initiative.

In 2021, Technological Management (Gestec/Fiocruz) participated in the activities promoted within the cooperation for Brazil-Denmark Innovation scope, among them the major themes identification of eventual projects to be developed or that are already under development and that could be catapulted with a partnership with an institution in the European country. In addition, Gestec participated in training courses offered by the Danish government in the technological management area and exchanged experiences with Danish institutions, such as the University of Copenhagen.