In Strasbourg on Thursday 20 April, the new Standing Sub-Committee on Public Health held its first meeting on the prevention and management of medicine shortages in Europe (see EUROPE 13141/5, 13161/28).
Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health, attended the meeting and confirmed that the proposal for the revision of the pharmaceutical legislation would be presented on 26 April by the College of Commissioners. “Our aim is to create a strong but flexible legal framework that is future-proof, crisis-proof and conducive to innovation”, she said.
The package of proposals aims to ensure both better access to medicines for all Member States and to further encourage innovation so that the EU pharmaceutical industry remains a world-class innovator, Kyriakides added. Antimicrobial resistance will be covered in the reform proposals, the Commissioner assured.
Tomislav Sokol (EPP, Croatian) referred to the differences in pricing between Member States for group purchases of medicines. Sara Cerdas (S&D, Portuguese) underlined the shortages of antibiotic medicines. Véronique Trillet-Lenoir (Renew Europe, French) asked the Commissioner about stock mapping in Member States, joint procurement of medicines of major therapeutic interest and a European list of critical medicines, as suggested by Ms Kyriakides.
“An EU list of critical medicines will be developed and adopted by the Commission,” the Commissioner said. The Commission will also propose measures to avoid medicine shortages. “To avoid such shortages, I will try to propose a preventive approach, with certain obligations on pharmaceutical companies to maintain stocks”, Kyriakides said. She also spoke about joint procurement and innovation. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)