Parliament's Public Health Committee held a first discussion on Thursday 28 May on the draft own-initiative report on medicine shortages. MEPs welcomed proposals by rapporteur Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé (EPP, France) to create a common basket of medicines at harmonised prices and a strategic reserve of medicines in critical situations.
The aim, the rapporteur stressed, is to “relocate, harmonise, and strengthen cooperation for greater solidarity and regain sovereignty with the implementation of a pharmaceutical strategy”. There is a need “to provide short-, medium- and long-term responses to recurrent shortages or pandemics,” she continued.
Overall, MEPs supported the rapporteur's ideas. On the side of the shadow rapporteurs, Michele Rivasi (Greens/EFA, France) even went so far as to refer to the general line of the report as “very important step forward” Valérie Trillet-Lenoir (Renew Europe, France), for her part, qualified the type of products that should make up the future European strategic reserve. According to her, it would be better to speak of “medicines with major therapeutic interest” rather than “medicines with health and strategic interest”, as the therapeutic imperative should prevail over the strategic, she explained. Alessandra Moretti (S&D, Italy) welcomed the idea of giving more powers and staff to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Valérie Trillet-Lenoir also raised the idea of a better convergence of evaluation criteria as well as negotiations leading, in the long term, to a “fair price” for medicines. On behalf of the GUE-NGL Group, Kateřina Konečná (Czech Republic) called for discussion on the inclusion of medicines as commodities.
The deadline for tabling amendments is 3 June, with a view to a vote in the Committee on Environment on 25 June. See the draft report: https://bit.ly/2ZMcUbm (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)