23/09/2020 (Agence Europe) – The new special committee on the fight against cancer (BECA) will be chaired by Polish MEP Bartosz Arłukowicz (EPP). The members of this new structure decided on this on Wednesday 23 September. Joanna Kopcińska (ECR, Poland) is First Vice-Chair, Sara Cerdas (S&D, Portugal) Second Vice-Chair, Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé (EPP, France) Third Vice-Chair, and Ivars Ijabs (Renew Europe, Latvia) Fourth Vice-Chair. Among its many tasks, the Special Committee will have to “assess possible EU intervention to improve transparency of treatment prices”. It will also need to explore ways to support non-profit clinical trials aimed at improving treatments in areas that are of no interest to the pharmaceutical industry in view of their limited cost-effectiveness. The first working meeting will be held on 12 October. It should be remembered that the European Commission plans to present an action plan by the end of 2020 that will tackle each key stage of the disease. (SPj)