We want to express our concern about the possibility of conducting ambitious scientific and medical research in our country in the event of a victory of the extreme right in the legislative elections. Indeed, the total absence of a clear program of the National Rally (RN) on science and innovation indicates the little interest of the leaders of this party for research, whether fundamental or clinical, that is to say oriented towards the discovery of innovative drugs to treat seriously ill patients.
Furthermore, the controversial and conspiratorial positions taken during the Covid-19 pandemic portend the worst regarding openness to open, evidence-based research. The withdrawal into identity advocated by the RN which places national preference at the heart of its program is incompatible with the numerous international exchanges, the training of foreign students, the obtaining of European funding as well as the academic and industrial partnerships essential to enable progress. major scientific research, particularly in the treatment of serious cancers which continue to kill more than 150,000 people per year in France.
For example, it is the obtaining of significant public and private funding, allocated independently of their immediate applicability, and the exchanges between researchers and doctors of different nationalities which made it possible, after several years of fundamental research, the discovery in a Marseille laboratory of a new molecule capable of directing NK lymphocytes (Natural Killers) against cancer cells.
“France cannot take the risk of isolating itself”
The pharmaceutical laboratory that acquired the molecule chose Marseille among other European or American cities and countries to pilot and carry out the clinical study of first administration in humans, in order to then benefit this treatment to patients suffering from serious leukemia. worldwide. Nine patients from the PACA region among the sixty patients in total were treated and, for some of them, they were able to obtain complete remissions. These results have just been brought to the attention of fellow doctors and international researchers during the European Congress of Hematology in Madrid in June 2024.
This adventure is only possible thanks to a bet made on exchanges, creativity, independence, know-how and technical expertise of Marseille expert centers as well as the trust of our international partners. Despite increasingly significant difficulties in recent years in maintaining the course of research, we believe that a victory for the RN would lead to a reduction in funding for large-scale projects making it possible to preserve our attractiveness.
France cannot take the risk of isolating itself and losing its place in the international competition of biomedical research. We want to always be able to work with our supervisory authorities and our partners to obtain the means that allow us to continue to transform the results of fundamental research into innovative medicines for better patient care.
Thus, to make the voices of researchers and scientists heard, among the Marseille actors from culture, art, social work, education, justice whose future is also threatened by a policy of nationalist withdrawal, we have created a collective “The Voices of Marseille” independent of any partisan position, which calls for fighting against abstention and blocking the far-right vote. We intend to make our voices heard today and in the long term to denounce the risks that would accompany an RN victory in these elections.
*Sylvain Garciaz, hematologist, University Lecturer; Eric Vivier, Professor of immunology, Marseille Luminy Immunology Center, president of the Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster; Dominique Maraninchi, Professor of oncology, former director of the National Agency for Medicines and Health Products.