The Italian contract research organisation (CRO) officially opened its Paris, France office last week, offering its full range of services to French clients.
“Our business is growing in France and as a result we require a greater presence there,” Cromsource’s Global Head of Medical Division Christian Milla told Outsourcing-pharma.com.
“The med-tech and biotechnology/small-to-mid sized pharma aspects of the life science industry are burgeoning in France,” he said. “These are areas where Cromsource excels and our business is growing as a result.”
The company also said the growth of biopharma was due in part to incentives from the French Government, which, in turn, has led to greater demand for outsourcing partners such as itself.
Milla explained: “One of the main factors of competitiveness for the BioPharma industry in France is the Research Tax Credit, in force for a few years. Biopharma companies can obtain a tax deduction for 30 % of their R&D expenses up to €100m ($136m) which is an advantage for Biotech and Medtech startups, and small and medium enterprises.”
Furthermore, “beyond €100m of R&D expenses, the tax deduction is about 5% which is a significant advantage for Specialty and Big Pharmas established in France.”
Such expenses considered include clinical trials and, critically for Cromsource, outsourcing to CROs which Milla said “have allowed the growth of Bioclusters in France where Biotech companies have developed products which now at the clinical stage.”
France’s Research Tax Credit is, according to Science journal Nature.com, one of the most generous R&D tax breaks in the world. Furthermore this incentive remained largely untouched during last month’s budget which saw the country try to alleviate its fiscal issues with increased taxes worth €3bn and public spending debts of €15bn.