Greece's Health Minister, Adonis Georgiadis, inaugurated a new Cell and Gene Therapies building and upgraded laboratories at the Hematology Clinic of Papanikolaou Hospital, calling the opening the start of a new chapter in advanced medical treatment for the country.
Georgiadis said that with the opening, Greece, not just Papanikolaou Hospital, was beginning a new path in the field of the most advanced therapies and research into advanced treatments at a pan-European level.
Project nearly lost funding
The minister described the difficult path the project took to completion. It had originally been included in Greece's Recovery and Resilience Fund but risked being dropped from the fund because of delays in completing the required procedures.
Georgiadis said that after he took office in early 2024, he pushed through a special legislative regulation, passed under an urgent procedure, which secured the project's place in the fund and allowed construction work to begin.
He said the new building strengthens the country's capabilities in cell and gene therapies. He added that the recent legislative regulation also allows cell therapies to be transferred from one public hospital to another.
Georgiadis said this would allow doses of therapy to be produced for other public hospitals within the National Health System, increasing the country's overall capacity to treat patients.
Cancer action plan and hospital staff
The minister also referred to the planned National Cancer Action Plan, saying the goal is to have it formally established before the next national elections.
He singled out the scientific staff of Papanikolaou Hospital and its Hematology Clinic, saying he was very proud, as Greece's health minister, of the level of scientific staff at public hospitals within the National Health System, and particularly of the Hematology Clinic at Papanikolaou.
He said the aim going forward is to make use of the new capabilities to provide even more, and more advanced, therapies to patients, adding that the ministry would never leave anyone behind and would not tire of doing as much as possible to provide healthcare even to the last person who needs help.
New unit adds 12 private rooms
Lilian Vildiridi, General Secretary of Health Services, said the new building was not simply another renovation but infrastructure that substantially changes what Papanikolaou Hospital can offer in hematology.
She said the new Hematopoietic Cell Transplant and Cell Therapies Unit has 12 single-occupancy rooms along with space for critical laboratories and research infrastructure, creating the conditions for further development of CAR-T and other advanced cell therapies.
Vildiridi said the project is part of a broader program to strengthen the hospital through the Recovery Fund, worth a total of 15 million euros, and referred to new hiring of medical and other staff to reinforce Papanikolaou Hospital.
First hospital with in-house CAR-T production
Deputy Health Minister Marios Themistokleous said the new building represents something new and pioneering for the entire National Health System, since Papanikolaou is the first center in Greece with the capability to produce CAR-T cells in-house.
CAR-T cell therapy is an advanced form of treatment in which a patient's own immune cells are modified to attack cancer. Themistokleous said producing the cells within Greece could mean faster access to treatment for patients and significantly lower costs for the health system, while also opening opportunities to move research from the laboratory into clinical medicine.
He said it was the ministry's duty to make this happen, and expressed the hope that patients would come out as winners in what he called a very difficult battle.
Clinic's 42-year record
Ioanna Sakellari, coordinating director of the Hematology Clinic at Papanikolaou, described the clinic's long history, noting it has been active in diagnosing and treating blood diseases for 42 years and has carried out about 2,700 hematopoietic cell transplants and 113 advanced cell and gene therapies since 1985.
She highlighted the clinic's in-house CAR-T lymphocyte production capability, which began in 2024, and the upcoming administration of the first such therapies as part of a clinical study.
Sakellari said the new infrastructure would strengthen the clinic's ability to apply advanced cell and gene therapies, support clinical research, and develop innovative therapeutic products. She said the addition of 11 beds to the Cell Therapies Unit is expected to increase capacity by between 30 and 50 percent. The clinic handles about 25,000 outpatient visits a year, she said, and the new building creates an integrated framework for diagnosis, treatment, research and training in hematology.
An idea 18 years in the making
Achilleas Anagnostopoulos, the former director of the Hematology Clinic at Papanikolaou, traced the project's origins back to 2008, when the idea for the infrastructure first arose.
He said 1.5 million euros in funding was approved for it in 2009 through the ESPA national development framework, but the project did not go ahead at that time. He said he submitted a completed preliminary study to the ministry in 2012, and in 2019 presented the need for the new facility to the prime minister, who he said committed to supporting it.
The project was finally included in the Recovery and Resilience Fund in 2022 and was completed with contributions from both previous and current leadership at the Health Ministry. Anagnostopoulos said the new infrastructure is expected to strengthen the country's capacity for hospital care, research and training in cell and gene therapies, adding that the project belongs to the patients who will need these treatments.
