Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis inaugurated a new Cell and Gene Therapy Center and Laboratories at the Hematology Clinic of the G. Papanikolaou General Hospital in Thessaloniki on the afternoon of September 4. The facility was built with 13.36 million euros from the Recovery and Resilience Fund, the European Union program that finances national reform and infrastructure projects.
Mitsotakis said that not only Thessaloniki but the whole country was gaining the most modern hematology center in Greek territory, and possibly in the entire Balkans. He said science had achieved remarkable results in personalized gene and cell therapies, and that he was glad the country could now support its scientific staff with an ultramodern building equipped to meet the needs of Greek patients.
Papanikolaou Hospital is one of the largest public hospitals in northern Greece and a key referral center for hematology and cancer care in the region.
Tour of the new facility
Mitsotakis was accompanied by Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, Deputy Health Minister Irene Agapidaki and Deputy Health Minister Marios Themistocleous. Hospital director Nikitas Papadopoulos guided them through the new building, which covers more than 2,500 square meters.
Officials estimate that once the center is fully operational, the number of cell therapies used to treat specific blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma could rise by 30 to 50 percent. The prime minister was also briefed on the hospital's plans to extend cell therapies to patients with multiple myeloma, a development officials said could let more patients from northern Greece, the rest of the country and Cyprus access highly specialized treatment without traveling to other centers or abroad.
Particular emphasis was placed on the center's research role. A new Biobank and a dedicated Clinical Studies Laboratory will support research protocols, participation in international studies and the development of new therapeutic approaches in a field officials described as evolving rapidly. The stated goal is for Papanikolaou Hospital to become not only a site where modern therapies are applied, but a center that actively contributes to research and the development of future medicine. Mitsotakis also spoke with doctors, nurses and patients during the visit.
Mitsotakis on Recovery Fund spending
Mitsotakis said the moment called for few words, adding that the words of the patients who envisioned the project carried more weight. He praised the leadership of the Health Ministry for meeting what he called the tight deadlines of the Recovery Fund so that the building could be delivered within August, as the minister had done, he said, with a series of other projects inaugurated in recent days.
He said the building was the best proof and the best answer to those who ask where Recovery Fund money and European resources go, arguing that they go toward public health infrastructure of this kind so that patients can find the best possible treatment. He said the center and its scientific staff had nothing to envy in any comparable center in Europe, and reaffirmed a commitment to hand over a national health system far better than the one his government inherited. He added that politics is often harsh, but that leaving a personal legacy that improves citizens' lives gives strength to continue the effort.
Georgiadis recounts a troubled history
Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said he was welcoming the prime minister with real emotion and pride to hand over the Immunotherapy Center at Papanikolaou Hospital to him and to the Greek people. He said the project had been the prime minister's own idea, inspired by a patient who had described her experience being treated at the hospital's hematology center.
Georgiadis said that when he took over the Health Ministry on the prime minister's instruction, the project was at what he called a very critical point. He said the European Commission had removed it from the funding program because deadlines were being missed, despite intensive work by the previous ministry leadership. He said that, following the prime minister's mandate, the ministry legislated an exceptional permit so the program's funding would not be lost, and that two years later the project had been completed on time and had reached its target milestone. He said no comparable center existed anywhere else in Greece, including Athens, or previously in the Balkans.
Georgiadis added that the ministry had recently passed legislation setting out the terms for producing CAR-T cell therapies at Papanikolaou Hospital and distributing them to other hospitals, aiming to lower the overall cost of such therapies for the national health system and treat more patients. He thanked the prime minister for his contribution and vision.
Facilities for immunosuppressed patients
The new building brings together the Molecular Hematology Laboratory, the Public Umbilical Cord Blood Bank, the Gene and Cell Therapy Laboratories, Cytogenetics, Cytomorphology, Flow Cytometry, the Biobank, clinical trial infrastructure and the new Hematopoietic Cell Transplant and Cell Therapy Unit.
The new unit has 11 single-occupancy isolation beds. Each room has a private bathroom, a dedicated antechamber and an INTERLOCK door system, features officials said are important for protecting immunosuppressed patients who require special safeguards.
Moving the laboratories into the new wing also relieves pressure on the adjacent STORGI building and allows the hospital's Graft Collection and Processing Laboratory to expand. The building was constructed to modern specifications and includes energy-saving features.
