Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 September 2022
242. Deputy Charles Flanagan asked the Minister for Health the date the European Union pharmaceutical cross-departmental group last met; the date it will next meet; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47402/22]
View answer262. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Health the last time the European Union pharmaceutical cross-departmental group met; the date it will next meet; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47492/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 242 and 262 together.
The Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, published on 25 November 2020 is the second major building block of the new EU Health Union, and is fundamentally about ensuring safe, affordable medicines for all citizens and patients.
The strategy has four key aims that are focussed on
- ensuring access to affordable therapies for patients, and addressing unmet medical needs (in the areas of antimicrobial resistance and rare diseases, for example)
- supporting competitiveness, innovation and sustainability of the EU’s pharmaceutical industry and the development of high quality, safe, effective and greener medicines
- enhancing crisis preparedness and response mechanisms, establishing diversified and secure supply chains and addressing medicines
- ensuring a strong EU voice in the world, by promoting a high level of quality, efficacy and safety standards
Significant progress has been made to date on the delivery of actions laid out in the Implementation Plan, with some of the mechanisms of delivery addressing more than one of the desired actions. (55 outlined actions both legislative and non-legislative which will operationally realise the objectives of the strategy). This includes ongoing work on the revision of the General Pharmaceutical, Orphan and Paediatric legislation, work to define/set criteria for unmet need, creation of the Health Emergency Response Authority, Structured Dialogue Initiative, and Clinical Trials Regulation.
To answer your specific question, the Department of Health has established a Cross Departmental/Agency Group with key Stakeholders with differing perspectives so as to be best equipped and informed to react holistically from a national perspective as the implementation of the strategy progresses. The Group has already held two meetings with a third one planned for early October.
