Tackling the diabetes time-bomb, Várhelyi’s win-win pitch opportunity

Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioners-designate for Health and Animal Welfare, is not expected to get an easy ride at his European Parliament confirmation hearing. Still, if confirmed, Várhelyi has an opportunity to leave a generational legacy with a radical shift in diabetes prevention. 

President von der Leyen has asked Várhelyi to work on preventive health, a comprehensive approach to health promotion and disease prevention across the life course, supporting healthy longevity and reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases on health systems - that sounds terribly like a budget expenditure burden with an incredibly long payback schedule. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

By investing in research and coordinating stakeholders, the new Health Commissioner could deliver not just a reversal of current EU diabetes trends but also ensure Europe becomes a formidable global leader in diabetes biotech at a moment when the world is struggling with traditional policy responses.

Combating NCDs

President von der Leyen has challenged Várhelyi to combat NCDs, including diabetes, in the context of completing the European Health Union - establishing a unified healthcare system across Europe.

Várhelyi also has the not insignificant task of leading the fight against cancer by spearheading initiatives aimed at cancer prevention and treatment - cancer frequently has a direct link to obesity and diabetes, and the next Commission will seek to tackle the broad spectrum of NCDs through common disease linkages.

Prevention is a priority

In his mission letter from von der Leyen, disease prevention is positioned as a priority. By focusing on strategies to prevent various diseases within the EU and by completing the European Health Data Space, the president expects Várhelyi to promote the uptake of artificial intelligence and the improvement of “the sustainability, safety and affordability of food production and consumption across the food chain”.

Ahead of Várhelyi’s confirmation hearing, Euractiv asked ENVI committee member Tilly Metz, MEP (Greens / EFA, Luxembourg), what her key message to the Commissioner-designate would be about tackling the diabetes timebomb.

“Diabetes is a growing crisis that needs urgent, coordinated action. The new Commission must adopt a comprehensive approach to fighting diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) everywhere where the EU can bring its added value - with a special focus on prevention, early diagnosis, and affordable treatment across the EU,” said Metz.

She added: “The new Commission must use EU policies to reduce health inequalities between countries and tackle commercial risk-like factors like unhealthy foods and lack of physical activity.”

More social dimensions are needed

This view was echoed by Vytenis Andriukaitis, Former European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety and now an MEP (S&D, Lithuania).

Andriukaitis, also a member of the ENVI committee, told Euractiv that while it was still too early to establish red lines for the hearings – he said discussions are underway amongst MEPs and preparatory work is still to be done – it was clear that the new Commission must include much more of a social dimension when it came to its overall approach.

Andriukaitis emphasised the critical importance of using health policy to underpin economic policy – unless workers are healthy and holistically supported with social policy dimensions and able to afford quality food, productivity would be weakened.

Neglecting health policy, in his view, is a shortcut for a weaker, poorer Europe. Investing in healthcare, including diabetes, has a very strong upside, but Andriukaitis is concerned that health is being undervalued by the Commission president.

Tilly Metz remarked that the “EU plays a much more important role in public health than many think. The last years clearly showed how useful it was to have EU coordination in a crisis. The NCDs epidemic is a long-running crisis, and a European solution is the only one viable.”

She added: “The new Commissioner must also be an advocate for health to be considered in all policies, equally by the member states, and by the Commission.”

Public health coordination

Despite member states retaining autonomy over much of the health dossier, Metz said there is much that Várhelyi could do, if confirmed, to enhance European coordination in research, education, food and pharmaceutical supply to help tackle the diabetes crisis.

“I hope the next Health Commissioner, whoever it is, will be able to convince member states that tackling public health challenges at the EU level is not overstepping national competencies, but it is simply a more efficient way of dealing with the common problems.”

She explained that in the last resolution adopted by the European Parliament on diabetes, which Metz co-authored, MEPs highlighted a need for political commitment: “I think now it is needed more than ever to make sure we set out ambitious, yet achievable goals and we can measure progress towards reversing the rising trend in numbers of Europeans with diabetes.”

“The new Health Commissioner should call on member states to adopt national NCDs plans and find as many synergies between them as possible. NDCs very often co-exist, and we need to tackle underlying risk factors such as environment, food, alcohol and tobacco. EU work on diabetes should not stop with Healthier Together – EU Non-Communicable Disease Initiative. It is just a first step.”

Investing in innovation

Within five years, the new Health Commissioner can achieve a rapid advancement in the battle against diabetes in Europe. To see a generational shift and truly leave a legacy, the new Commissioner can leverage the firepower of Europe’s innovative and financial might.

Type 2 diabetes affects 400 million globally and is a growing epidemic. It challenges families and caregivers, with current treatments varying in effectiveness. Precision medicine, considering individual biological traits, may enhance prevention and treatment, improving outcomes and reducing costs and side effects.

This represents not just a health challenge but a global economic opportunity for European research.

In May, Executive Vice-President Vestager spoke on the State aid approval of the ‘Med4Cure’ project - viewed as a project of common European interest. She said participants in Med4Cure will focus on four workstreams, the first of which is collecting, studying and digitalising cells and other samples of bio-resources.

Secondly, she said participants would then develop pre-clinical models to test novel therapies and diagnostic methods and identify innovative treatments for conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Europe is supporting this next-generation research through agencies such as the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) - RHAPSODY, funded by IHI, aims to identify novel biomarkers, other than blood glucose, that can be used to identify individuals most at risk of developing type 2 diabetes and predict its individual clinical course (disease progression) and its complications.

RHAPSODY says it had access to data from large groups of patients from across Europe (study cohorts), including individual clinical, biochemical, genetic and multi-omics data.

If Europe is to find a new rhythm for diabetes under the next Health Commissioner, projects such as RHAPSODY and Med4Cure will need the EDHS, combined with AI, innovation and research funding, Europe-wide coordination on food processing, critical medicines harmonisation, and more effective public health communication.

While Várhelyi appears to be shunned because of Hungary’s political direction, he has the opportunity to garner goodwill with an ambitious agenda to defuse the diabetes timebomb. In doing so, Várhelyi has a realistic argument to make that investing in diabetes will save Europe’s creaking health systems and truly make Europe a global biotech player.

What’s not to like?

[ By Brian Maguire | Euractiv's Advocacy Lab ]