Innovation in pharma
Revision of orphan and paediatric drug framework needed, say reports
Both the European Parliament and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have reiterated the need to update the regulations on medicines for children and orphan drugs, in order to better address unmet needs of children and adolescents in cancer care.
Commission: Pharma companies need incentives to develop orphan drugs
The market will not regulate itself when it comes to finding solutions to rare diseases, said Sandra Gallina, director at the European Commission’s DG SANTE, adding there is pressure to kickstart innovation on orphan drugs.
€2.4 bn ‘Innovative Health Initiative’ to better address current health issues
The public-private partnership ‘Innovative Health Initiative’ (IHI), built on the 14 years of experience from the previous ‘Innovative Medicines Initiative’(IMI), expands its scope, focusing less directly on pharmaceuticals and more broadly on health care.
MEPs call for the EU pharma strategy to address medicine shortages
MEPs adopted a draft report on Tuesday (12 October) aimed at strengthening the EU's pharmaceutical strategy to ensure every patient has reliable and timely access to medicines, as shortages have been increasing since 2000. EURACTIV France reports.
Pharma rules overhaul steals scene of EU’s 2022 health agenda
The revision of the legislative framework of pharmaceuticals and of medicines for children and rare diseases will drop the curtain on next year's Commission agenda as they are expected to be adopted in December 2022.
EU action to turn the AMR tide looks at different incentive models
EU policymakers are being urged to consider the full range of new incentive systems and pilot innovative approaches to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including Netflix-style subscription services and pull incentives.
MEP: Parliament will pressure Commission to focus on nanomedicines
The European Parliament will put pressure on the Commission and the member states to provide the necessary regulatory framework for nanomedicines in order to better make use of their potential for patients, EU lawmaker Pietro Fiocchi told EURACTIV in an interview.
EU ponders new incentives for novel antibiotics
The European Commission will examine specific incentives and a new pricing system to develop innovative antibiotics in its pharmaceutical strategy, in a bid to take a more ambitious stance against the rising threat of anti-microbial resistance (AMR).
EU leaked pharma strategy pushes innovation for a resilient Europe
Affordability, availability and sustainability are the main focus points of the EU’s new pharmaceutical strategy, due to be published on Wednesday (25 November).
COVID-19 further complicated ‘biggest cancer killer’ diagnosis
There is an urgent need for specific recommendations over lung-cancer screening at the highest political levels in order to detect early and tackle lung cancer, the “biggest killer cancer”, stakeholders have said.
Economist: ‘Premature’ to decide changes in Orphan Drugs law
Europe needs to give EU Orphan Drugs regulation more time to show its effectiveness before reviewing the incentives it provides and putting pharma innovation to the test, economist Adam Hutchings told EURACTIV in an interview.
Report: Without orphan drugs law, 2mn patients deprived access to therapies
In the absence of the EU orphan drugs regulation, which focuses on rare diseases, approximately two million patients would not get access to therapies, a new industry-funded report has found.
Commission urged to consider common regulatory framework for nanomedicines
The lack of a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework on nanomedicines and their “generics” poses risks for the safety of EU patients and this is something that the European Commission should urgently look at, EAASM has said.
Poor investment in digitising health hit Europe back with COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded Europe that its piecemeal approach to investing in the digitisation of health systems comes at a cost, but not all countries and policymakers have yet learned the lesson, the chairman of the European Connected Health Alliance told EURACTIV.
Early stakeholder dialogues crucial for success of rare orphan medicines
Early dialogue between stakeholders is crucial for the effective development and success of rare orphan drugs, used to treat patients with rare diseases, Anna Bucsics, project adviser at the mechanism of coordinated access to orphan medicinal products (MoCA), told EURACTIV in an interview.
MEP: A common EU tool to incentivise production and availability of orphan drugs
When it comes to rare diseases and 'orphan drugs', technology is there to support an “objective” EU tool that could provide the pharma industry with the necessary incentives to research and produce orphan drugs and simultaneously avoid exhausting ailing health systems, MEP Stelios Kympouropoulos told EURACTIV in an interview.
Commission’s ‘risky’ move to re-visit orphan drugs regulation
The European Commission is expected to present by the end of July an evaluation study on the pros and cons of the application of orphan and paediatric regulations, which deal with a niche segment of rare diseases that affect fewer than five in 10,000 people.
NGOs call for moratorium on controversial ‘gene drive organisms’
After over 78 environmental and agricultural organisations signing a letter this week calling for a moratorium on gene drive technology, EURACTIV took a closer look at the controversial technology to find out about what it is and the implications it holds.
Franco-German couple sets eyes on EU health sovereignty
A joint COVID-19 recovery proposal put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday (18 May) calls for a new European approach to health crises, aiming for greater EU sovereignty on medical products and pharmaceuticals.
Oxfam: COVID-19 vaccinations for vulnerable could cost fraction of top pharma’s yearly profits
Oxfam is urging governments and pharmaceutical companies to guarantee that vaccines, tests, and treatments will be patent-free and equitably distributed to all nations and people, ahead of the World Health Assembly next week.
Commission aims to bring back medicine production to Europe
The EU needs to focus on ways to bring the production of medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients back to Europe to avoid a future recurrence of shortages experienced during the COVID-19 crisis, the EU health boss Stella Kyriakides told MEPs on Tuesday (22 April).
Commission’s new Pharmaceutical Strategy wants to touch core issues
The European Commission is planning to re-open basically all files related to the pharmaceutical industry with its roadmap for a new Pharmaceutical Strategy, seen by EURACTIV.com.
‘This is personal’: Von der Leyen launches consultation on EU’s Cancer Plan
The President of the European Commission launched an EU-wide public consultation on Europe's Beating Cancer Plan on Tuesday (4 February), announcing an EU-wide "open health data space" in support of research, prevention and cure.