Think about a future the place our youngsters and grandchildren in Europe don’t worry diabetes, most cancers or Alzheimer’s illness. The place these ailments might be handled in a means meaning folks dwelling with them expertise life like others — or the place the ailments are prevented within the first place.
This would possibly seem to be a dreamer’s world. However once you consider the achievements in drugs that we take with no consideration each day — vaccinations that forestall lethal childhood diseases, and medicines that scale back the chance of a coronary heart assault for tens of millions of individuals — maybe the dream isn’t up to now off.
The corporate I lead, Novo Nordisk, based 100 years in the past, was the producer of the primary technology of insulin in Europe, giving individuals who have been unsure whether or not they would possibly dwell past the subsequent few months hope about their futures. However the innovation didn’t cease there. Innovation by means of generations signifies that as we speak, folks dwelling with kind 1 diabetes don’t have to restrict their goals. We’re proud to be sponsors of Workforce Novo Nordisk, knowledgeable biking staff and group of different elite athletes who all dwell with kind 1 diabetes — an aspiration which might have appeared past creativeness earlier than medical innovation.
If we would like our youngsters to be first in line for future medical improvements, we have to present political will as we speak.
In the present day, Europe is going through new challenges, in well being care and past. Most well being care techniques are attempting to handle the challenges of ageing populations and a rise in continual ailments, alongside funds constraints and a depleted well being workforce that’s nonetheless reeling from the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Slightly than idle dreaming, that is our stark actuality: medical innovation is required if we’re to handle the challenges we face. It’s important for lowering the burden of illness, which can scale back the burden on well being care techniques and the well being workforce. Medical improvements can assist sufferers to reclaim their lives and the lives of their households, to be part of society and the workforce, positively impacting their lives and Europe as an entire.
The pharmaceutical trade affiliation EFPIA has set out commitments to enhance entry to medicines throughout the European Union. Nonetheless, entry to medicines is a nationwide competence and plenty of EU member nations have necessities that make it troublesome for corporations to enter the market in a well timed method. We should work with all of the related stakeholders to unravel this problem.
In the meantime, the EU legislative framework for medicines is present process its greatest revision in many years. If we would like our youngsters to be first in line for future medical improvements, we have to present political will as we speak.
The pharmaceutical sector is a strategic sector for Europe and so, medicines shouldn’t be seen in isolation in numerous coverage areas.
We share the aspiration with sufferers and policymakers to have a regulatory framework that’s match for the longer term, and medicines which can be extra quickly obtainable to the sufferers who want them throughout Europe. This aspiration can even assist to strengthen a strategic industrial sector in Europe. However lots of the proposals, mentioned extensively elsewhere, run counter to those shared aspirations.
Whereas as we speak there’s actual energy in Europe’s pharmaceutical trade, we can’t take that with no consideration in a altering international context. Up to now 20 years alone, international pharmaceutical analysis and growth going down in Europe has declined from 41 % to 31 %. In superior applied sciences resembling cell and gene therapies, the U.S. and China are attracting far better ranges of funding. The place innovation occurs issues.
In the present day within the EU, there are numerous completely different coverage frameworks for eager about what kind of pharmaceutical sector Europe wants: from open strategic autonomy to vital applied sciences; from long-term financial competitiveness to the safety of provide of vital medicines. What is evident in all instances is that the pharmaceutical sector is a strategic sector for Europe and so, medicines shouldn’t be seen in isolation in numerous coverage areas, however addressed holistically. As the present president of EFPIA, I name on all policymakers to assist an built-in technique for our sector that may assist a extra aggressive, more healthy and stronger Europe.
Within the quick time period, the MEPs and nationwide governments at present engaged on the Common Pharmaceutical Laws have to think about the longer term they need for Europe, and the position that medical innovation ought to play inside it. Whether it is to play a central position, insurance policies need to be formidable and coherent. If we are able to get this proper, collectively, future generations of Europeans might be pleased with what we’ve carried out.