Engerer advocates for accessibility and affordability of medicines in high level Politico conference
Healthcare is not a luxury good and access to affordable medicines to all patients in the European Union should be at the heart of legislative measures on pharmaceuticals adopted at EU level.”
This was said by Cyrus Engerer, member of the European Parliament during a high-level conference organised by
Politico held a few hours before the European Commission unveils its new pharmaceutical legislation.
The conference brought together EU policy makers and healthcare experts for a discussion on the manner in which Europe can improve access to innovation in the health care sector.
The conference was organised ahead of a package of legislative measures in the area of pharmaceuticals expected to be published this week by the European Commission following many months of anticipation in view of substantial delays in its adoption. The Pharmaceutical Package will be the first update of the EU’s
pharmaceutical legislation in 20 years.
During the conference MEP Engerer focused on the significant inequalities existing between different member states when it comes to access to affordable medicines in Europe.
“It is truly unfortunate that we still speak of small and big markets when it comes to access to pharmaceuticals at EU level. In reality, we have one
single market which should work in practice to ensure that all patients, irrespective of where they are coming from, have equal access to affordable medicines in Europe.”
Engerer also spoke about the way industry should be incentivised to ensure better access to medicines by European patients.
“Incentives for industry should only be given if they are bound to place their products on all markets and therefore in all member states, irrespective of their size. It is quite surprising that we have to convince industry to sell more of its products as these kind of business models are usually only used for luxury goods.”
MEP Engerer also referred to the need for Europe to become
more resilient by increasing its efforts to make up for lost ground in the international competition with the US and China when it comes to innovation. Engerer warned that Europe is losing talent to other continents and that urgent action is needed to address this reality.
Engerer concluded by stating that the European Union would also benefit from further cooperation between member states on access to treatments for rare diseases.
Negotiations on the Pharmaceutical Package at the European Parliament are expected to start in the coming weeks with the aim of adopting the updated pharmaceutical legislation before the end of Parliament’s mandate next year.