The idea of establishing a European public infrastructure to manage policies relating to drugs, vaccines and biomedical research in the community space has not yet disappeared. After almost collapsing two weeks ago in the Envi Commission, the proposal is back to the surface in view of the vote in the European Parliament, scheduled for 10 and 11 April.
A group of fifty MEPs from different parties has in fact presented an amendment to the regulation of European pharmaceutical legislation which relaunches the creation of what has been renamed the “Cern of health”.
The first signatories of the proposal are the Italians Alessandra Moretti, Brando Benifei and Patrizia Toia, from the Socialists and Democrats group, supported by colleagues of different nationalities, including many socialists but also various exponents of the groups of the Left, the Greens, the liberals of Renew, non-members and a member of the European People's Party.
Last March 20, the Envi Commission of the EU Parliament voted on the reports on the proposals for directives and regulations for the revision of European pharmaceutical legislation. And the agreement reached essentially sacrificed the commitment to building the health infrastructure. But with the amendment presented today the proposal is back on the table.
The objective is to establish a European Medicines Facility, i.e. an infrastructure capable of affirming the Union's health priorities in the public interest and directing the research and development of medicines, in particular those not sufficiently developed by the private pharmaceutical industry or whose prices are unsustainable. It would not be an instrument opposed to the pharmaceutical industry, which will still be able to benefit from numerous incentives confirmed by the compromise reached in the Envi commission, but an autonomous entity in the public interest.
The proposal takes on even more importance in the face of the investigation opened by the European Public Prosecutor's Office into the messages exchanged between the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, at the time of the negotiations between Brussels and the US pharmaceutical giant for the purchase of anti-Covid vaccines.
Among the most committed supporters of the “Cern of health” is the Inequalities and Diversity Forum co-coordinated by the former minister Fabrizio Barca. “It is encouraging – observes Massimo Florio of the University of Milan and member of the Forum – that a large group of MEPs share the usefulness of a public infrastructure for medicines, the approval of which would represent an enormous step forward in the construction of a of health as a common good. The initiative of the fifty MEPs demonstrates that this is an achievable objective, as well as an indispensable piece for building a fairer Europe. We hope that the European Parliament does not miss the opportunity for a new approach to address the challenge of unmet medical needs.”
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