“Fostering and investing in an environment to speed up and improve efficiency in the process of discovering innovative new medicines, is critical for the EU pharmaceutical sector”.
This was claimed by the Minister for Health and Active Aging Jo Etienne Abela as he is in Brussels where he is attending the EPSCO Health Council Meeting. During this Council, a number of themes are being discussed including the Future of Europe’s Competitiveness report, the pharmaceutical package, the use of tobacco, organ donation and also the -conclusions on strengthening cardiovascular health.
In his intervention on the Future of Europe’s Competitiveness report, Minister Jo Etienne Abela said that this is a new era of medicine where medicinal products are becoming more and more complex in order to provide targeted treatment such as that of ‘ advanced therapy. Minister Jo Etienne Abela stressed that without a serious simplification in the bureaucratic processes of licensing and authorizing new medicines, Europe cannot prepare itself for the future,
The minister mentioned how the EU is effective and strong when it works in unity, so it is crucial to use all the competencies to work together. He said how “Only in this way can we achieve our desired goals together, namely that of a policy aimed at innovation throughout the EU.”
The minister said how the report stresses that as an EU we must increase investment, both public and private and invest properly in the necessary skills. He also spoke about how the people studied in the sector and a structured field of research are the raw material for innovation without which we will get nowhere. However, he said how these do not fall within the competence of the ministers of health only, and therefore a horizontal cross-sectoral strategy, regulated at the highest level, is needed.
The minister concluded by saying that “This new era of personalized medicine needs a single European front and not a competition between large and small states.
Photo: MHA
