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In a report on the shortage of medicines, adopted by 79 votes to 1 and 0 abstentions, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee\u00a0<\/span>recently<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>addresse<\/span>d<\/span>\u00a0the root causes of medicines shortages. It\u00a0<\/span>stresse<\/span>d<\/span>\u00a0the need for an increased EU response, as the problem has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 health crisis across Europe with a direct negative impact on patients\u2019 health,\u00a0<\/span>safety<\/span>\u00a0and the continuation of their treatment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The report asks the Commission to use the upcoming\u00a0<\/span>pharmaceutical strategy<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to address the issue of availability, accessibility and affordability of safe medicines in Europe.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Return to EU independence in the health sector<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the approved text,\u00a0<\/span>MEPs<\/span>\u00a0call on the Commission to find ways to restore pharmaceutical manufacturing in Europe, giving priority to essential and strategic medicines as currently 40% of medicines marketed in the EU originate in non-EU countries, while 60 – 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients are produced in China and India.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n MEPs<\/span>\u00a0encourage the introduction of financial incentives, in line with state aid rules, to persuade producers to make active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines in Europe. They also welcome the new EU health programme\u00a0<\/span>EU4Health<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to make medicines and medical equipment more available and more accessible.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Better coordination with and between EU countries<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The report calls for member states to share best practices in stock management and create coordinated health strategies, including further use of joint EU procurement of medicines. It also calls on the Commission to create a European contingency reserve of medicines of strategic importance, along the lines of the\u00a0<\/span>RescEU<\/span><\/a>\u00a0mechanism. It should function as \u201can emergency European pharmacy\u201d\u00a0<\/span>in order to<\/span>\u00a0minimise shortages. Equal access for all member states should be ensured through a new mechanism of just distribution.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To make medicines circulate more easily between EU countries, they also want more flexible rules on packaging formats, reuse procedures, longer expiry periods and the use of veterinary medicinal products.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a report on the shortage of medicines, adopted by 79 votes to 1 and 0 abstentions, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee\u00a0recently\u00a0addressed\u00a0the root causes of medicines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3987,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[182],"issuem_issue_categories":[8],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3999"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3999"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4001,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3999\/revisions\/4001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=3999"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=3999"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=3999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}