ESMO - EIU Report on Shortages of Inexpensive, Essential Cancer Medicines

Launch Event: 17 May 2017 at the European Parliament

Many European countries currently face shortages of inexpensive, essential medicines that are crucial for the treatment of cancer patients. Such shortages, including medicines on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines List, are catastrophic for patient care and the ability of oncologists to effectively treat patients. Strikingly, a report from the European Association for Hospital Pharmacists showed that in 2014, 45% of European pharmacies experienced weekly shortages. Considering that the second most commonly reported medicines shortages are in cancer, a disease with a growing prevalence, this challenge presents an increasing threat to patient care in Europe.

ESMO has also tackled this issue in its “European Consortium Study on the availability, out-of-pocket costs and accessibility of anti-neoplastic medicines in Europe”, and so has the European Parliament in the recently voted INI Report on “EU Options for Improving Access to Medicines”.

Thus, given the importance of this issue MEPs Alojz Peterle, Lieve Wierinck and Françoise Grossetête, will host an event, in collaboration with ESMO, to launch a new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit & ESMO (pdf) proposing concrete actions to deal with these shortages of inexpensive, essential cancer medicines. Together with MEPs Mr. Peterle, Ms. Wierinck and Ms. Grossetête, ESMO looks forward to welcoming Members of the European Parliament to an engaging debate on this important topic.

Programme

• 16:00 – 16:10 - Opening remarks
  Alojz Peterle MEP and Dr. Josep Tabernero, President-Elect, ESMO

• 16:10 – 16:20 - EU priorities in tackling medicines shortages: the supply of essential cancer medicines
  Stephen Mifsud, Health Attaché at the Permanent Representation of Malta to the EU

• 16:20 – 16:30 - Cancer medicines shortages: causes, impact and mechanisms to prevent them, a case study from Romania
  Vlad Voiculescu, Former Minister of Health, Romania

• 16:30 – 16:40 - The impact of GMP non-compliance on availability of medicines
  Brendan Cuddy, Head of Service, Manufacturing & Quality Compliance, EMA

• 16:40 – 16:50 - Impact of medicines shortages to the cancer patient
  Klaus Meier, President, European Society of Oncology Pharmacy

• 16:50 – 17:10 - EIU-ESMO report “Cancer medicines shortages in Europe: Policy recommendations to prevent and manage shortages”
• • ESMO initiatives addressing cancer medicines
    Dr. Alexandru Eniu, ESMO Executive Board Member & Chair, ESMO Global Policy Committee
  • Policy recommendations to prevent and manage cancer medicines shortages
    Annie Pannelay, Economist Intelligence Unit

• 17:10 – 17:55 - Panel Discussion: From words to action – policy solutions to the issues of medicines shortages in the EU
  Co-chaired by Dr. Josep Tabernero, President-Elect, ESMO and Lieve Wierinck MEP

Participants:

• • Alojz Peterle MEP
  • Klaus Meier, President, European Society of Oncology Pharmacy
  • Stephen Mifsud, Health Attaché at the Permanent Representation of Malta to the EU
  • Brendan Cuddy, Head of Service, Manufacturing & Quality Compliance, EMA
  • Dr. Alexandru Eniu, ESMO Executive Board Member & Chair, ESMO Global Policy Committee
  • Vlad Voiculescu, Former Minister of Health, Romania

• 17:55 – 18:00 - Conclusions
  Next Steps and Conclusions

Co-Chairs
Alojz Peterle MEP
Lieve Wierinck MEP
Françoise Grossetête MEP
17 May at 16:00 - 18:00
European Parliament, Strasbourg - Room N3.5