First insights into the Pharmaceutical Strategy Roadmap

As the European Commission launches the debate on the future Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, ESIP provided its first insights to the published roadmap. ESIP overall welcomes the Commission’s initiative and calls for a balanced approach taking into consideration both access to innovation that responds to unmet medical need and support to the financial sustainability of health systems.

Joint statement of EU public health stakeholders

Current pharmaceutical prices are set at levels that come at the expense of the access for patients and the sustainability of healthcare systems. As a result, a reflection on fair medicines has gained traction over the past years. A coalition of 12 European and international organisations, including ESIP, put forward recommendations for the EU to reach fairer drug pricing.

A dual approach to protect public health

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), defined as “the ability of a microorganism to stop an antimicrobial from working against it”[i], is a growing global public health threat, with 30 000 patients in the EU dying annually as a result of infections caused by resistant bacteria, while antibiotic consumption in the EU almost doubled between 2010 and 2014[ii]. The European Commission is launching discussions on ways to tackle AMR and to address the lack of new antimicrobials, in the context of its upcoming Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe.

As a contribution to this discussion, the European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP) representing the statutory social insurances in 17 Member States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, would like to raise awareness amongst decision-makers of the importance of tackling the spread of AMR by improving infection prevention and control as well as increasing the development and availability of new effective antimicrobials inside and outside the EU.