The news comes from Montana, not Brussels. A new state law extends "right to try" rules, giving patients with severe conditions access to experimental therapies that haven't received FDA approval yet. The story behind it is Kris DeVault's: his son Brody, born in March 2023, shows developmental delays. He's now past two and a half, and the genetic test is still pending. Time is not.
Why does this matter? Because while the US builds fast tracks for innovation, Europe debates procedures and Italy convenes committees. The practical result? Biotech companies — and their therapies — look at markets with faster approval cycles and lower regulatory friction. For an Italian SME building software for the health sector, the question is not abstract: where do you invest? Where do data flow, where do processes speed up, where does value get created quickly?
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We, at Meteora Web, judge digital products the same way: if a platform doesn't cut time or increase margins, it's a cost. The same rule applies to public policy. A Europe that slows access to innovative therapies is not more ethical — it's just slower. And slowness has a price, in health and competitiveness.
Our position is clear: Europe must choose whether to be a platform or a parking lot
Europe risks becoming the parking lot of health innovation: treatments arrive later, cost more, and are produced elsewhere. Italian SMEs working in this space — from management software to telemedicine, from clinical data to health logistics — feel it daily. The gap is not just regulatory; it's infrastructural. If the continent doesn't accelerate, the divide widens. Invoking GDPR is not enough: we need clear procedures, certain timelines, a single gateway for clinical trials. And we need data. Without interoperable data, no AI will ever help diagnose earlier. It's about choices, not technology.
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So what to do? For software developers in Italy: own the health sector, because it will be the next battlefield. Invest in interoperability, security, data quality. And don't wait for politics to move. Build products that work today, within the current framework, but ready to scale when the framework changes. Because it will. The question is who'll be ready.
