EFPIA notes yesterday’s adoption of the INI report by the European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on EU options for improving access to medicines.

We welcome the report’s recognition that medicines enable patients to live longer and healthier lives and that both the public and private sectors play an important role in discovering new treatments for patients.  The report also acknowledges that the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most significant contributors to the European economy 

EFPIA also supports the ENVI committee recommendation on the need for a stable and predictable intellectual property and regulatory framework, which is essential to create and maintain an innovation-friendly environment, supporting patient access to innovative treatments. 

Incremental innovation is a key driver of advancement in patient care. Ensuring the companies can protect incremental innovation through the intellectual property framework is critical to future innovation, delivering new medicines to patients, to healthcare systems and to society.

EFPIA welcomes the proposal for a high-level strategic dialogue with all relevant stakeholders, including policymakers and Member States’ representatives.  The dialogue should focus on current and future developments in the EU pharmaceutical system, in order to establish short-, medium- and long-term, holistic strategies for access to medicines that guarantee the sustainability of healthcare systems, while securing future medical innovation.and ensuring a competitive pharmaceutical industry.

EFPIA looks forward to engaging with the European Parliament and other stakeholders on this common goal, to ensure that patients across Europe may obtain rapid access to the latest life-changing or life-saving medicines.