Gathered in Luxembourg on Tuesday, 15 June, EU health ministers adopted draft conclusions supporting the implementation of joint solutions to deal with the problems of access to medicines and medical devices in the EU.
Minister Marta Temido of Portugal said in summary that these conclusions will thus constitute a “roadmap” for the EU-27 and the European Commission so as to ensure the accessibility and availability of these products.
In the text, the Council of the EU specifically stresses the need to strengthen the EU’s strategic autonomy by, for example, diversifying active ingredient suppliers and supply lines and reinforcing manufacturing capacities for critical medicines within the EU. To this end, it calls on the European Commission to draw up a full inventory of the EU’s manufacturing capacities.
However, national delegations seem to have given up supporting the idea of imposing stricter obligations on the industry with regard to supply—an idea put forward by the European Commission in its pharmaceutical strategy.
In an earlier version of the draft conclusions (see EUROPE 12729/10), the EU Council actually “welcome[d]” strengthening the “obligation of supply by industry” in future. The option was ultimately discarded in the final version.
Similarly, Member States removed any and all references to the future EU steering group dedicated to medicine shortages—a group that was expected to be created within the European Medicines Agency and over which the EU-27 intends to retain control (see other news)—from their “roadmap”.
While all are in favour of increased coordination on the subject, several Member States continue to defend their national competences. This is the case for Denmark, whose minister, Magnus Heunicke, reiterated during the meeting that it was important to his country that the measures taken at the EU level to deal with these problems of potential shortages of medicines or medical devices remain nonbinding.
To consult the adopted conclusions: https://bit.ly/2U8DV8j (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)