ESIP CEOs letter to President von der Leyen on EU pharmaceutical legislation

ESIP recently sent a letter to European Commission President von der Leyen on the revision of the European pharmaceutical legislation, signed by CEOs of national healthcare payers and statutory social security institutions, across the European Union.

ESIP's leaders particularly emphasize that:

a) Policy measures that extend exclusivities and delay the entry of generic and biosimilar products risk further fragmenting access and widening disparities between Member States

b) Longer exclusivity and monopoly periods granted to the manufacturers contribute to higher prices, distort competition, increase power and information asymmetries and impede patients’ timely and affordable access to medicines

c) Further multi-layered, public support and incentives which aim to derisk the innovation and production processes and strengthen the supply chain resilience need to be balanced, transparent, evidence-based and accompanied by appropriate conditionalities

d) Improving regulatory performance should go hand in hand with maintaining the EU’s high standards of safety, transparency, and scientific integrity. Accelerating approval timelines further may undermine the robustness of evaluations of new medicines.

Last but not least, the CEOs of national healthcare payers and social security organisations reiterate that financially sustainable healthcare and social protection systems—responsive to the needs of all patients and society at large—are not a barrier to Europe’s competitiveness, but one of its essential pillars.