A proposal on equal access to medicines and innovative medicines is expected to be submitted at the end of March, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakidou, said on Wednesday, noting that it is “unthinkable” today not all EU citizens have access to them.
In her meeting with Cypriot media journalists on the sidelines of the Plenary session of the European Parliament (EC), Mrs. Kyriakidou mentioned, among other things, that a relevant proposal, on which they have been working for two years, will be submitted at the end of March.
“It is unthinkable”, the Commissioner said in 2022, almost 2023 that not all EU citizens have equal access to medicines and innovative medicines. With the pandemic, inequalities became more visible, he added.
They are currently at the stage of evaluating the various proposals that will be included in the proposal, Ms. Kyriakidou said, noting that a balance must be found between the right for everyone to have access to medicines and innovative medicines at affordable prices but at the same time to continue to incentivize European pharmaceutical companies to continue to be pioneers.
Asked by a journalist whether the EU has learned how to deal with a pandemic, Ms Kyriakidou said they have changed the way health issues are dealt with across borders. Too many things that were done in the first six months were done with non-institutional solutions since there were no institutional solutions then, he said, adding that this has now changed.
“We have made structural changes in the way we deal with the issues that they concern our preparedness for crisis issues”, said the Commissioner.
Health remains the responsibility of the Member States and is not changing, he said, adding that what has changed is that they have strengthened the European Medicines Agency, the European Center for Disease Prevention, changing the way they work, and have created a new authority, the Authority Crisis Monitoring and Preparedness (HERA). “This is the European Health Union,” he added. He noted that the European cancer strategy is part of this European Health Union, while at the end of March he will present the proposal for change for the pharmaceutical strategy, for the way we have access to medicines.
He also said that “it changed the way we deal with health issues at the European level”, giving the example of monkeypox. “We were able to move for the first time using European funds,” he noted, adding that the Preparedness Authority, within three weeks, bought vaccines and distributed them to member states.
“We now had the mechanisms to move,” added.
Asked about the investigations being conducted into the “Qatar scandal” with the alleged involvement of MEP Eva Kailis and EP staff, Ms. Kyriakidou said that “it is very sad” for everyone that there is an investigation into a corruption scandal because this affects all European institutions.
He noted that as public figures they should be role models for citizens across Europe and when such cases are investigated it affects all institutions. He added that “a very good job” is being done by a huge majority of MEPs, but everyone feels that there is now a very negative image of the EP institution.
When asked about this, he said that he believes it is reversible, if there is transparency. , if the investigations proceed in a correct way, and if the parliament also sees how and what should be in place so that these phenomena do not repeat themselves.
When asked if she herself had been approached by companies to influence decisions, she answered “no” and that she would not allow it.
He said that all the decisions taken from the beginning regarding the pandemic are based on purely scientific guidelines, while for all the decisions regarding the contracts “there was a clear process where all the negotiations were done not by the Commission, but together and on behalf of the Member States and the Commission”. He explained that there was a small negotiating group made up of some Member States and a representative of the Commission, which went back to the big steering group where all the Member States are involved and which continues to meet every week, that all the Member States agreed together on all the terms of the contracts.
“This was absolutely important to avoid any suspicion”, he said.
The Commissioner said that she had and has contacts with pharmaceutical companies, since she is part of her job, not only for the corona virus, but for all health-related issues, but that very strict procedures are followed.
