The consumption of opioid painkillers increased in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Is this enough to signal the risk of an opioid crisis similar to the one in the United States? Not really, experts say.
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.
The creation of an EU cancer plan will improve EU citizens’ medical needs and access but will also simultaneously help bring innovations to the market, through enhanced collaboration among stakeholders, according to Belgian MEP Lieve Wierinck.
The European healthcare sector is divided over the “actual value” EU governments pay for the authorised and partly public-funded novel drugs, compared to medicines already on the market.
The next EU Health Council on 8 December will discuss the “lack of drug availability in Greece”, amid mounting tensions between the leftist government in Athens and the pharmaceutical companies.
Following a clash with the Greek government over its decision to withdraw a cancer drug from the market, ROCHE, a Swiss multinational company, ultimately decided to make the drug available to patients for free.
The Greek ministry of health reacted strongly to the decision of a pharmaceutical company to withdraw a drug from the market for “viability” reasons, saying it will not accept any blackmail.
A multinational pharmaceutical company has decided to withdraw an innovative oncology medicine from the Greek market, claiming that its price has fallen more than 50% because of the government’s regulatory interventions in the pharma area, EURACTIV.com has learnt.
Several pharmaceutical companies in Greece have threatened to stop supplying the market with innovative drugs and said they could even withdraw existing drugs as a result of an obligatory “discount” imposed by the Greek government and applied retroactively.
Organisations of patients with rare diseases have warned EU policymakers to “think carefully” before reviewing the incentives in the orphan drugs regulation, claiming that the pharma industry should not be discouraged from investing in new therapies.
Backing innovation in the pharmaceutical market and developing new evidence-based economic models is the only way forward for future healthcare, according to EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis.
“Salami-slicing” the cost of medicines, which represent almost one-fifth of health system budgets and are subject to rigorous value assessments, won’t make healthcare systems more sustainable in the future, Nathalie Moll told EURACTIV.com in an interview.
The Commission’s recent musings on the social dimension of Europe touches on common drug pricing among member states. But it misses out on solutions for faster access to medicine, Fred Roeder.
Ethicists, humanists, lawyers and patients should come together to understand the risk of data in healthcare and whether patients are willing to take that risk, Pierre Meulien told EURACTIV.com.
In terms of pure biotechnology, Europe has embraced innovation. However, it cannot compete with the US yet because it cannot drive private investment in the field, as well as open up the market to new products, a pharmaceutical executive told EURACTIV.com in Lyon.
Biotechnology-derived medicinal products are fully part of EU healthcare but there are still many unknowns which call for adequate controls, the European Commission told EURACTIV.
A new European Commission task force aimed at further developing the digital strategy in health will significantly help Europe’s healthcare systems and thus their patients, writes Denis Horgan.
Given that the current European Commission has not prioritised healthcare, it looks as though it is up to the European Parliament to push the agenda, writes Denis Horgan.
The Maltese EU presidency will seek more transparency in the way pharmaceutical companies negotiate with member states on medicines’ pricing, Health Minister Chris Fearne said in an interview with EURACTIV.
EXCLUSIVE / National healthcare systems should embrace the digital era and use Health Technology Assessment (HTA) to become truly sustainable and cost-effective, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis told EURACTIV.com in an interview.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will this week publish the much-awaited results of a pilot project on the early marketing authorisation of drugs, EURACTIV has learnt.
A new breed of drugs, called “value added medicines”, could help patients improve their everyday life while in treatment, without increasing healthcare budgets, Christoph Stoller said in an interview with EURACTIV.com
Marijuana-derived medicines became legal on Monday (13 June) in Macedonia, which joined over a dozen European countries that have already authorised the products for certain patients.
The internet provides a vast marketplace for new dangerous substances and drug prevention authorities risk being left in the wake of dealers and distributors, warned the head of the EMCDDA, Alexis Goosdeel. EURACTIV Germany reports.
