Today marks World Cancer Day, an opportunity to unite the world in the fight against cancer. It makes us think of those we have loved and lost to cancer, and the millions of people who are currently living with the disease.

It is also an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to make a difference for people living with cancer. The experience of recent years has taught us that the right mix of science and policy can deliver real, meaningful changes that improve, extend and save the lives of those diagnosed with cancer. And the future is packed with potential. Today, over 1,300 cancer medicines are in development and more than 1,200 oncology trials were launched in 2020.

Our shared challenge is to translate technological progress into better patient outcomes for all. On the policy front, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the Mission on Cancer provide the political momentum to make real progress towards the goal of preventing, treating and curing cancers together. Their success will require broad political support, continued investment, and new initiatives, to boost innovation.

The EFPIA Oncology Platform is playing an active role in this vital conversation. Today, we publish our vision for building a European ecosystem to beat cancer. It contains 10 specific and detailed recommendations that we know are essential to fostering a research and access environment to support medical innovation in Europe.

10 things Europe needs to translate science into new treatments:

1. Relevant and up-to-date national cancer plans and mechanisms to measure progress
2. A collective willingness to address inequalities and barriers to patient access
3. An agile, fast and globally competitive regulatory system
4. A stable and predictable intellectual property framework
5. A simpler approval process for cell and gene therapies which include GMOs
6. A modern and improved EU marketing authorisation process
7. Robust methods for collecting and using cancer patient experience data
8. Innovative ways to assess value that accelerates pricing and reimbursement decisions
9. Harmonised approaches to approving and reimbursing precision oncology medicines
10. A partnership approach to tackling medicines shortages and supply chain issues.

These 10 recommendations are ambitious but achievable. Taken together, they illustrate the importance of ensuring that our policy, regulatory, pricing and reimbursement systems can match the pace of progress in science and technology. For each of these we have set out what needs to be done in concise but concrete terms.

As cancer patients and oncology experts will attest, every day counts in the fight against cancer. To borrow a phrase from the World Cancer Day campaign, if we are to create a future without cancer, the time to act is now. EFPIA and its member companies are willing to play our part in making change happen.