Proposal by the European Parliament Committee for the Revision of Pharma Legislation
Athens, 20 March 2024.- Following the opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), SFEE appreciates that the Commission acknowledges the importance of having a strong and predictable incentive framework for the pharmaceutical industry, for the patients and for the European and national healthcare systems.
However, despite the improvements made compared to the European Commission’s proposal, the industry remains concerned that the reduction of incentives for R&D of new innovative medicines in Europe makes the European pharmaceutical industry less competitive compared to other regions of the world. At the same time, it is hard to comprehend how reducing incentives for companies to discover, develop and deliver new treatments in Europe is in the best interests of patients in the region.
Greece is a country that continues to face challenges in terms of patients’ access to medicines, especially innovative ones, with only 40 out of 160 being fully available to citizens between 2018-2021 due to reasons such as low public funding and mandatory reimbursements for pharmaceutical companies.
As discussions on EU pharma-legislation continue, we stress the need for continued dialogue on how research, development and production of new treatments can help build a competitive and resilient Europe, and how in small countries like Greece continued and timely access to new and innovative treatments for citizens can be ensured.
