Ian Gust
Professorial Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne.
Marcel Tanner
Director of the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel.
Yves Champey
Dr. Yves Champey is a physician with over 40 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He started as Medical and Scientific Director, working with Miles, Pfizer and Rhone Poulenc Santé, and he was Senior Vice President, International Drug Development, Rhone Poulenc, from 1995 to 1997.
Richard Laing
Medical officer at the WHO and author of the Priority Medicines for Europe and the World report.
Yves Champey
Advisor to the Director General of Evry Genopole in France
Yves Champey sees a major role in prevention of disease.
We have to make a lot of effort in prevention of metabolic diseases and diseases related to nutrients, such as obesity. We know what to do, but in my view politicians do not make the right decisions. As we learnt from the tobacco discussion, we have to put more effort into prevention and less into research on the consequences of bad behaviour, such as smoking and eating too much. Politicians need better education and scientific information.
Biotechnology can play a role on the treatment side, not on the prevention side. For example for the production of nutraceuticals,food with medical qualities due to specific nutrients like proteins and amino acids. But it will probably be restricted to rich communities, because it will be a costly treatment.