EFA has been elected to become a member of the newly launched European Critical Medicines Alliance, a European Commission initiative to address, reduce and react against medicine shortages in the EU which are far too often a daily challenge for allergy, food allergy, atopic eczema, asthma and COPD patients in Europe, despite the prevalence and impact of these diseases.
The alliance is embedded into the European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (DG HERA) as part of the European Health Union, and is set to bring together all relevant stakeholders to strengthen cooperation and identify the challenges, the priorities for action and possible policy solutions to the issue of shortages of critical medicines in the EU.
The launch of the Alliance is part of the roadmap the European Commission announced in October 2023 to address medicines shortages in the EU. The Alliance will be closely looking at the final Union list of critical medicines, elaborated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in December 2023. The list of critical medicines prioritises the medicines for which shortages should be avoided. The first list draft is planned to be reviewed this spring as well, with an updated version expected to be published in December 2024.
EFA’s appointment is for a five-year term, and the work is expected to start in spring, with its first recommendations on actions to be taken to improve the supply of critical medicines to be published by autumn 2024.
EFA is looking forward to working together with our community, bridging their needs and expertise with the EU institutions and all the stakeholders across the supply chain to guarantee timely access to medicines for patients in the EU and beyond.