Health Commissioner Kyriakides Explains in European Parliament Upcoming Measures to Tackle Medicine Shortages and Create EU Healthcare Autonomy

• 04/10/2023
• News

During this week’s plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides offered a preview of the European Commission’s impending policy measures to tackle medicine shortages and create strategic healthcare autonomy for the European Union. Most of these measures will form part of a European Commission Communication which is scheduled to be unveiled on 24 October 2023. Kyriakides explained that the Communication will: 

• contain a toolbox of “actions” to enhance the availability and security of supply of medicines, including a range of short-term measures to respond to critical shortages;
• provide for the early adoption of a Union list of critical medicines;
• create a European Solidarity Mechanism which institutionalises current forms of voluntary cooperation;
• offer guidance on the joint procurement of medicines; and
• discuss stockpiling measures.

The Communication will thus address significant components of the “non-paper” which the Belgian federal minister of social security and health presented to his fellow ministers in charge of health matters during an informal meeting of EU health ministers at the beginning of May 2023 (see, Van Bael & Bellis Life Sciences News and Insights of 4 May 2023).

By contrast, the Commission’s Communication will not squarely address the proposed Critical Medicines Act, a further key ingredient of the Belgian non-paper. While Kyriakides acknowledged the importance of the reshoring of medicines (and the creation of “open strategic autonomy” for the EU), she also stressed the need for the EU to remain connected to the outside world (“we do not want to decouple from the global economy”). She added that the EU generally has work to do in creating a more welcoming production environment for pharmaceuticals by looking at manufacturing flexibility and skilled labour enhancing measures. Kyriakides also highlighted the critical importance of funding at both the EU and Member State levels. The Critical Medicine Act therefore requires, in her words, “very thorough preparation” which should take a backseat to the priority objective of turning the Commission’s pharmaceutical legislative package into law (see, Van Bael & Bellis Life Sciences News and Insights of 3 May 2023).