03/12/2024 (Agence Europe) – Olivér Várhelyi, the European Commissioner for Health, confirmed on Tuesday 3 December, after the EU Health Council, that he intended to present ‘legislation on critical medicines’ within 100 days, because the situation is urgent. “We can no longer risk finding ourselves in a shortage situation as we did during the Covid-19 pandemic”, said Mr Várhelyi. Market failures must be remedied. Pharmaceutical companies must “respond to market needs, but these markets must be sufficiently attractive, and we will make them attractive by setting up a joint purchasing system”, explained Olivér Várhelyi. We also need to bring the production of medicines back to Europe. He also intends to revise the regulation on medical devices. “There are shortages in certain markets and the authorisation system sometimes doesn’t work”. (LC)