MEP Victor Negrescu urged the European Commission to immediately tackle the shortage of medicines that is endangering the health of hundreds of thousands of people.

Speaking at the European Parliament plenary session on 13-16 March, the MEP highlighted the situation that European patients are facing as “they no longer have access to the treatments they need due to rising prices and the disappearance of generic medicines”.

“This situation is caused, among other things, by production problems, but also by the growing shortage of essential products at EU level. For example, medicines needed to treat cancer, infections and diseases of the nervous system, epilepsy or Parkinson’s, account for more than half of the treatments we lack”, MEP Victor Negrescu explained.

He regretted that, ”despite the requests made by the European Parliament, the EU continues to be increasingly dependent on third countries, especially India and China for the production of active pharmaceutical substances or medicines”.

”All European patients have the right of access to medicines. The problem is far more complex to be solved by a single state. European solutions are needed and now, as we speak in plenary, patients in Romania are waiting for an answer. I call on the European Commission to react and to immediately resolve this situation, which puts the health of hundreds of thousands of people at risk”, concluded MEP Victor Negrescu.

The European Commission will come forward in the coming weeks with a proposal to amend EU pharmaceutical legislation firstly ”to respond to the interests of patients across Europe and put them at the centre of attention” and secondly ”to fully support an innovative and globally competitive European industry”.

Adopted on 25 November 2020, the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe aims at creating a future proof regulatory framework and at supporting industry in promoting research and technologies that reach patients in order to fulfil their therapeutic needs while addressing market failures.