EU Joint Medicine Procurement Should Become Permanent, Chris Fearne Tells POLITICO Healthcare Summit
The system of joint procurement used by EU countries to procure vaccines and other medical equipment during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic should be made permanent through the creation of a new Europe-wide mechanism, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne said this morning.
Fearne was one of the guests at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit, where he said that the EU’s successful vaccination program had shown the advantages of member states pooling resources together for a common objective.
Fearne told the conference he believed it would be a pity for such a system not to be brought forward and expanded.
Malta’s Health Minister told the summit that the time had come for a permanent mechanism, administered by the European Commission, to come into force and to cover other non-COVID-19 cutting-edge drugs, such as those for rare diseases.
Back in July 2019, Malta and nine other EU countries signed the Valletta declaration, in which they committed to exploring legal and political ways to bring about better transparency on the pricing of medicines, with a view towards facilitating future joint procurement initiatives.
Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Romania all signed the declaration along with Malta.
Fearne told the summit that the implementation of a joint procurement mechanism – which he has long been pushing for – could replace the alliance between the countries on the matter.
“Doing this together is better than doing it separately,” Fearne said.
What do you make of Fearne’s proposal?
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