Press releases

Today the European Commission created a new authority (HERA - European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority) to avoid some of the frailties that the COVID pandemic cruelly exposed in early 2020, when supply chains were severely disrupted and there were shortages of medicines in intensive care units and protective equipment such as masks.

The European Parliament has voted to give greater powers to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to help it better manage public health crises and improve access to critical medicines and medical devices for consumers.

The EU institutions have struck a long overdue deal that will require Member States to carry out joint assessments of medicines and other health technologies for the EU market.

BEUC welcomes today’s European Commission decision that renders legally binding commitments by pharma company Aspen to reduce significantly the prices of certain anti-cancer drugs (by on average 73% in Europe for the next 10 years). The decision follows a Commission antitrust investigation opened in May 2017 into whether Aspen breached EU antitrust rules’ ban on dominant companies imposing unfair prices.