Joint meeting EU Directors for Pharmaceutical Policy & Pharmaceutical Committee

As part of Slovenian presidency of the EU Council, a joint meeting of Directors for Pharmaceutical Policy of EU Member States and the Pharmaceutical Committee of the European Commission took place on 8 and 9 July 2021. In this form, the meeting was organised for the first time and thus brought together policy makers in the field of medicinal products from the Ministries of Health and experts from national medicines agencies or public health institutions of the EU and EEA member states. The meeting was also attended by representatives of EMA and invited renowned international experts.
The discussion focused on finding common EU solutions that can improve the accessibility and availability of medicines, while also addressing the issue of medicine shortages, especially where a lack of commercial interest may occur, such as in the case of antimicrobials, or in the case of repurposed generic and older medicines in oncology. This would contribute to the strengthening of the European Health Union and the implementation of the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe.