The European Commission on Tuesday started a process that could lead to
reforms of drug manufacturing to limit shortages of vaccines and
antibiotics and make medicines more easily available.To get more news
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The move comes as the European Union continues to fight the
COVID-19 pandemic, an effort that has exposed some healthcare
shortcomings and the bloc's dependence on foreign supplies of essential
drugs and chemicals, mostly from India and China.
“The unprecedented coronavirus pandemic clearly demonstrates the
need to modernise the way the EU ensures access to medicines for its
population,” an EU Commission document said on Tuesday, listing
shortages and unequal access to medicines as the main issues to address.
The document seeks feedback from the public on possible reforms of
rules on clinical trials, marketing of medicines and their production
and distribution in Europe.
The 27-nation bloc has long experienced shortages of medicines,
and the COVID-19 crisis worsened its predicament as global supply chains
were disrupted while supplier countries temporarily curbed exports of
some drugs.
Antibiotics, cancer medicines and vaccines are cited in the
document as essential items which are often in short supply in Europe, a
problem likely to worsen as the bloc has insufficient lab capacity to
produce the huge amounts of vaccine doses that will be needed if a
COVID-19 shot is developed.
The overhaul, whose details are due by the end of the year, will
review incentives and requirements for pharmaceutical companies to place
new drugs on the market and ensure their supply. Brussels proposed last
week a budget of 9.4 billion euros ($10.5 billion) until 2027 to
underpin these reforms [nL8N2D9444].
Among possible changes, information on medicines could be
increasingly provided online or on multilingual packs to address
bottlenecks in their distribution. The EU could also try to curb
differences in drug prices, which are set at national level.
The Wall