On 25 November, the European Commission published its Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, which aims to create a “future-proof and resilient” EU pharmaceutical system that enables innovation whilst ensuring the supply of medicines and vaccines to all EU citizens from pharmaceutical distribution experts.
The Pharmaceutical Strategy builds on the existing systems already in place for developing, authorizing and monitoring medicines, and has four work strands. The first will focus on ensuring access to affordable medicines for patients and addressing unmet medical needs. The second is designed to support the competitiveness, innovation and sustainability of the European pharmaceutical industry, without compromising on the development of high quality, safe, effective and greener medicines. The third will draw lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on enhanced crisis preparedness and response mechanisms and the development of more secure and diversified supply chains. The fourth work strand will focus on collaborative actions on a global scale, with the development and ratification of common international standards for medicine quality, efficacy and safety by working closely with the World Health Organisation, competent national authorities and other key stakeholders.
Of particular relevance to Neuronet and the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), the Strategy proposes flagship initiatives and actions that include support for collaborative projects bringing together different stakeholders to promote the use of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence in combination with EU health data. Among the flagship initiatives for competitiveness is an action to support public-private partnerships via the Innovative Health Initiative, with a particular focus on involving SMEs, academia and not-for-profit organisations such as patient associations and regulatory agencies.
The Strategy will be discussed at an upcoming meeting of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council, which is the body that ensures consumer protection and human health within the EU.
The Pharmaceutical Strategy can be accessed here:
https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/human-use/docs/pharmastrategy_com2020-761_en.pdf