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.
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.
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.
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 World Health Organisation (WHO) wants EU member states to focus more resources on e-Health, saying it can empower patients and spark innovation.
SPECIAL REPORT / Europe needs fewer specialised doctors and more drugs and treatments to target personal ailments with pinpoint accuracy, policymakers at the Gastein Health Forum heard yesterday (3 October).
