Posted by Michael Wonder on 10 Apr 2019
How the EU fails patients trying to access critical medicines
9 April 2019 - A robust agenda to decide the future of healthcare in Europe looms large over the upcoming elections to the European Parliament in May.
In the lead up to election day, the current Presidency of the European Union, Romania, has already advocated for an ambitious healthcare plan – including efforts to ensure patients’ access to medicines across the continent.
The unprecedented pace of biomedical research continues to yield new medicines, renewing hope for European patients waiting for better therapies to treat their unmet medical needs. The EMA is approving more novel drugs every year: in 2018, 42 new active substances were approved by the EMA, an increase from 35 in 2017 and 27 in 2016. These new approvals hold promise for patients in treatments ranging from gene therapies to monoclonal antibodies.
