Brussels, 18/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - Member states could join forces to purchase tuberculosis and hepatitis C vaccines and diphtheria and botulism anti-toxins. This is likely to be the proposal brought forward by the European Commission at a meeting of the Joint Procurement Agreement Steering Committee on 17 December.
Community framework. In spring 2014, the European Union set out a Community framework that would allow the joint purchase of vaccines and medicines. This initiative, supported by all the member states with the exception of Poland, followed on from the H1N1 swine flu pandemic of 2009 which led to the massive purchase of vaccines which, largely, ended up in the dustbin. It allows four member states, at the minimum, to come together to ensure they have access to vaccines and medicines against all serious cross-border health threats (Decision 1082/2013/EU), such as communicable diseases (flu pandemics, seasonal flu, AIDS, etc.), threats of chemical origin and threats caused by environmental events (including those related to climate change). Thanks to the joint procurement agreement, the Commission said at the time, member states are assured of having sufficient quantities of vaccines and medicines at reasonable costs in the event of cross-border health threats.
Initiatives hitherto limited. Very little has been seen thus far in terms of concrete results. The Commission is currently working on two strands: one relates to personal protection equipment (PPE) and the other to access to vaccines.
On the first of these, the Commission has been working for a number of months to identify member states' needs to deal with a future flu virus (since it is too late for the Ebola virus). According to our information, a call for tenders is likely to be launched before the end of the year. Five member states (and possibly a sixth) are currently interested in this initiative. They are Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Italy and Malta.
On the second point, the Commission wrote to the member states at the start of September to ascertain their needs in terms of vaccines. It suggested they come together to make it easier to have access to tuberculosis and hepatitis C vaccines and diphtheria and botulism anti-toxins. The idea is to purchase a small quantity immediately and to reserve a proportion of later production by paying annual reservation fees (a percentage). According to an informed source, a quorum (four member states) is likely to be achieved for the proposals on tuberculosis, diphtheria and botulism. Hepatitis is still problematic in that, practices, needs and approaches vary widely from one state to another.
Avoiding the mistakes of H1N1. States signing up to the new mechanism hope to avoid any fresh scandal like the one that rocked Europe in 2009. At the time, following the pandemic warning by the World Health Organisation (WHO), states frenetically purchased vaccines without really taking stock of the situation. Millions of euros were spent by states which had little bargaining power over the industry and only limited knowledge of needs. Criticism followed that the danger had been overestimated - a single injection (rather than two as initially expected) proved sufficient and the number of victims was lower than predicted (2,900 victims in the EU/EEA, according to figures compiled by national authorities) - and the secondary effects had not been studied sufficiently well, with the serum being suspected of having led to cases of narcolepsy.
The meeting on 17 December is also expected to discuss more political issues, such as emergency use of vaccines that have not yet received marketing authorisation or that cause adverse reactions. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)
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