On 24 April, the European Commission's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) launched the Critical Medicines Alliance bringing together national authorities, industry, healthcare organisations, civil society representatives, the Commission and EU agencies to identify the best measures to address and avoid shortages of critical medicines. The Alliance will focus on industrial policy and complements the reform of the EU's pharmaceutical legislation. It has 250 registered members, including ministries of governmental agencies representing Member States, industry representatives and non-governmental organisations.
The Alliance has three overarching strategic goals:
• Work to enhance security of supply
• Strengthen availability of medicines
• Reduce EU supply chain dependencies.
To strengthen security of supply, the Alliance will develop strategic recommendations to address and avoid shortages. Key factors being analysed include an over-dependency on a limited number of external suppliers, limited diversification possibilities, and limited production capacities. The recommendations will form together of a multi-year ‘Strategic Plan', containing milestones and corresponding deadlines for their implementation. The Alliance will also look at how market incentives, such as the possibility to expand the use of capacity reservation contracts and joint procurement can be used to enhance security of supply of critical medicines. The Alliance is launched for a period of five years. Its first recommendations on actions are foreseen by the end of the year. More details on the Alliance are available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fen/ip_24_2229